Blood of the Chozo
by FireNexus
Summary: A collection of posts from the original Interactive Fan Fiction- The Blood of the Chozo, by Nintendo.(Thanks to Jippykid for this stuff)


*** The following was the opening post for Blood of the Chozo, the Interactive Story Nintendo ran based on the Metroid universe. The following were the only details given to participaters at the beginning of the story -- from there, it was the task of the writers involved to create the story around them.   
  
I should also note that the "Overdog" is like a sentient super-computer in the world of this story. It is more or less a central base for all knowledge, and is accessible in much the same way the internet is to us.***  
  
The wall chrono winked joyfully at him: It's 4a.m.! Time to clock out! Sullust blew his breath out his beak and nose in a sudden burst of exasperation and relief. For once, things were going his way. After a year as the first Chozo plebe at Tranquility Base, he'd finally be able to get off the graveyard maintenance shift and start his bounty hunter apprenticeship in earnest. He closed his locker, sealed it with a press of his talon over the sensor, then turned and headed for the double doors that swung out onto the edge of the tarmac.  
  
Though Sullust was nervous about his new assignment, he'd be happy to leave the other plebes and their taunts behind him. "Mr. Adventure," they called him behind his back and to his face. Well, it sure showed them when the advanced training assignments were posted and they saw who he'd be apprenticed to for the first rotation! Of course, with her reputation, that meant he'd have to work that much harder to make the grade. But just think! A good eval from her could open a lot of doors for him when he finally...!  
  
Sullust's daydreams were interrupted by a flash that painted the hallway with long stripes of light and shadow. This was immediately followed by a shockwave that rattled the building down to its reinforced foundations. Sullust wasn't even aware of the klaxons and emergency lights, reacting by reflex to the crisis in all the ways his training had imprinted on his mind. Locker open, suit on, helmet lock, gear secure, and he was off to the airstrip in less than a minute. It wasn't until he came close to the wreck that he realized whose ship it was.   
  
With the other plebes at his back, he fought his way through the smoke, dousing flames as they jumped at him, trying to see if the command pod was still intact. The greasy plumes were so thick, he nearly rammed his visor into the smeared plex of the cockpit canopy before he realized that he'd reached his goal. The battered pod had come free of the airframe and was lying on its side. The plebes righted it, then made sure it was thoroughly doused with cooling foam before they used the manual override to pop the canopy. Her visor was open, and her glassy eyes took some moment to focus on them. She was slightly dazed, but she wore that familiar sardonic grin they'd all come to respect and fear, just a little bit.  
  
"Well now, boys," she drawled, "what took you so fraggin' long?"  
  
******************************  
  
This is Tyull Hovan for Charybdis VidNews. We've just been informed of a grave threat to the Messina star system. Samus Aran, a bounty hunter of some repute, crash landed this morning at the guild's Tranquility Base airfield. If you recall, it was Samus that single-handedly destroyed the infamous pirate leader known as Mother Brain and ended the Metroid threat a few standard solar years ago. She was taken to the guild medical facility for treatment of a concussion and other injuries. If not for the fact that she managed to don her battle armor during re-entry, she might not have survived.  
  
  
Samus reports that on her approach to our system, she was overtaken by a massive ship, constructed within the hollowed out shell of an asteroid. She managed to evade the fighters sent in pursuit, but not before her ship was badly damaged. The asteroid ship has taken up a position beyond our outermost planet, hiding within a cluster of other asteroids, effectively masking itself from detailed long-range inspection.  
  
We do know, however, that fighters sent out from the asteroid ship have already begun attacking targets across the system, killing beings and destroying property seemingly at random. The only communications received from the invaders have been the words, "The True Chozo are here. Submit."  
  
Viewers will recall that the Chozo are a reclusive bird-like humanoid race from across the quadrant. It was this race that saved Samus from a pirate attack as a child and raised her as one of their own. It is only recently that small numbers of Chozo have begun to emigrate to other planets and participate in several guilds. Little is known about Chozo culture, and we have no idea who these "True Chozo" are or what their connection with other Chozo may be. Inquiries to local Chozo community leaders have gone unanswered. The Overdog computer indicates that there may be some reference to the "True Chozo" in Chozo mythology, but data is sketchy, and no conclusions can yet be made.   
  
Attempts at further communication with the invaders went unanswered, and shortly after the attacks began, Charybdis was cut off from the rest of the system by an immense subspace distortion field. Neither communications nor travel are possible through the field, at least for us. The invaders are apparently able to come and go as they please. The Overdog's sensors confirmed that the aliens' technology is superior to our own, but not by too much, so there is hope. The people of Charybdis are asking the guilds to help us weather this crisis. We need to find a way through the distortion field, so that we may contact the other planets in the system. We must gather our resources and arms, find out who and what the aliens are, exploit any intelligence we can gather about them, and drive them out or destroy them.  
  
The Overdog has foretold that a way through the distortion will be discovered on 12/27. At that time, the Overdog will post information on the new planets that you can explore. We'll keep you updated as this amazing story unfolds. This is Tyull Hovan, reporting virtual for Charybdis VidNews.  
  
*** When the story first started, we were also given a list of "guilds", or classes, that our characters could initially belong to. As time went on, these classes were used less and less, but initially every character belonged to one of the four guilds. ***  
  
The guilds are designed to be like the character classes found in traditional RPGs. They're meant to give the rest of the players an indication of what your motivations and abilties might be like, and to give you a little bit of structure to work with. Of course, not every character in your story will be a guild member, and you'll always be interacting with beings from all walks of life. As you contribute to the adventure, you can use as many characters as you want, but we recommend that you stay focused on only one to three major figures of your own, just to keep things focused.  
  
The only races we've assumed are in this adventure are human and Chozo. The rest are up to you! You can create any kind of race you wish to fulfill the needs of your story, as long as they conform to the rules of the game (no magic users, for example).   
  
Characters may be in only one guild at a time, though their allegiances may change, if your story warrants it. We've appointed guild masters to keep track of their group's activities and report on them through a periodic on-line newsletter (check your guild's folder for the latest issue). This way, you can be informed about what your partners are doing, and what's happening with other groups. The newsletters can also be used as part of the ongoing adventure, for example, placing classified ads for partners or resources wanted or for sale.  
  
The Bounty Hunter's Guild  
Though they operate outside the normal boundaries of law enforcement, the bounty hunters have a proud tradition to uphold justice. It is not illegal to be a bounty hunter (indeed, many planetary governments actively employ them), but some law enforcement and government officials think that the hunters are as bad as the criminals they pursue. They don't have as many rules or as much structure as planetary police forces, but they do have a strict code of honor.  
  
The Engineer's Guild  
Engineers are freelancers who create and repair most any sort of mechanical or technological device, including weapons systems for bounty hunters. Some are specialists in one area or another, while others are jacks-of-all-trades, dealing with whatever tech is hot at the moment. Engineers also serve aboard starships, keeping all systems in good operating order.  
  
The Marshal's Guild  
The association of official law enforcers who uphold local and system-wide ordinances. Some marshals are stationed in specific cities, regions or planets, while others roam as "free agents." Marshals can be either elected or hired by contract to their posts. The marshals see themselves as true defenders of the law, and consider the bounty hunters dangerous rogues.  
  
The Merchant's Guild  
The Merchant's Guild helps regulate commerce around the system, but members also use their money and resources to influence the other guilds. Merchants often don't care who they deal with, as long as they get a fair price. While most of their activities are above board, some members are not above skirting the law to get what they want.  
  
The Trogs  
The Trogs are not a recognized guild, but actually a loose association of people living on the edge of Messina society. They beg, borrow or scavenge whatever they need from wherever they can get it, including the guilds. Some Trogs are people who wanted to embark on lives of adventure without following the codes of the guilds, while others are homeless and jobless with nowhere else to go. Trogs often hire themselves out as mercenaries, private detectives or troubleshooters.  
  
*** The following is a summary of the 'Rebellion' Story, which more or less became the backbone story of Blood of the Chozo. It's brief, and it was written a long long time ago, and the ending isn't complete. Just let it be known that the good guys won.  
  
Another Note: You'll see Houston Barrimonde referred to from time to time. This is the same Houston that was in the Metroid Comic which ran in Nintendo Power. ***  
  
The Best of Metroid: BOTC  
  
Part 1: The Story of the Rebellion  
  
I'll get this little essay here started with the story I know best-- The story of the rebellion I started myself. I created the Rebellion because I was starting to get bored with the solo stuff and I thought that there was no point in playing a play-by-mail game unless there was some interactivity going on. Otherwise, you're just writing a piece-by-piece short story. So, shortly after the situation at Nextima, I posted in every folder asking for some members to an organizations I called the Rebellion. After that, things started to get very interesting, and my plotline finally started taking turns I didn't expect it to.  
  
  
CHARACTERS IN REBELLION-  
  
JippyKid: I started out in control of two characters. Luke Allimandus, a son of a universally famous engineer, and Sarius, a mysterious Trog whose history was shrouded in blackness. Luke took Sarius under his wing after they met at the Registration Center on Charybdis. Later, when Luke went shopping for some upgrades for a ship he was working on, a strange being talked Sarius into stealing some blood from a creature in the building. Sarius was pretty ambitious to become more than a Trog, so she quickly took the job and left Luke. She stole a vial of blood from the creature, and was escorted by her employer out of the building and into a ship while being chased by a team of bounty hunters. Later, when the bounty hunters found out Luke knew Sarius, they tried to hunt him down to. Luke fled into his ship and tracked down Sarius. He found her locked up in a Horned Lizard flagship. Luke quickly employed the closest help he could find-- Houston Barrimonde, an old friend of his, and a respectable but self-centered bounty hunter that had worked along side Sarius in the third metroid situation. (Remember Houston from the Comic Books?) He found Sarius locked up in a Horned Lizard flagship. She had been duped by the horned Lizards to get the blood and give it to them. Then they locked her up. She also found out that they were planning to manipulate the blood in order to ressurect the Metroid race. Luke and Houston rescued her.   
Upon their return, they discovered that Sarius was a DNA replica of Samus Aran. By this time, they made the discovery that someone had advanced the techniques of DNA cloning and manipulation drastically, but they did not know who-- the horned lizards seemed to dense to think of it. They were called off once again to help Space Station Nextima. There, they were all three seperated. Houston and Sarius were both captured by the True Chozo while Luke made it back to Charybdis with about a hundred passengers in tow. Luke immediately headed out to rescue his comrades from the clutches of the Chozo, but found himself ending up in the Horned Lizard's Flagship once again. This time, he was overtaken by the Chozo, and was forced to battle Houston to the death in order to make his escape. Using some clever knowledge of chemical reactions, Luke managed to escape with Houston. Houston had obtained information on the true Chozo. Apparantly, someone had managed to make an aggresive mutant of the Chozo by splicing Chozo and Human genes-- these mutants were dimwitted and easy to control. Now, they were starting to make hybrids of Chozo, Human, and Metroid genes. These new mutants were just as easy to control, and many times more dangerous. They still had no idea who was making them, since the lizards were still too stupid to do this.  
When the two got back to Charybdis, they sent out their cry for help by posting a request for the rebellion. They used their newfound information to persuade new members to join. Houston also had acquired the Chozo's next goal- to take over the underwater city belonging to a race of aquatic intelligent creatures. They figured they could use this base to take over Charybdis from the inside out, since no one would really suspect the Chozo to make a secret base underwater. Now, only time would tell what would happen to the rebellion.  
  
  
  
JGiannanto: JGiannanto started out with a typical story which soon stretched out into a much more complicated plotline. He started with one lone bounty hunter, Sybern, who was just walking down a dirt path when BOOM! He was attacked for no reason by a couple of Chozo. He took them out, and tracked down their ship, since he didn't want any more strange creatures on his tail. He soon found the Chozo ship, Cho. This ship had drastically advanced technology. Heck, the ship itself had an artificial intelligence!   
No sooner than Sybern had his ship then he was called off to Space Station Nextima. It was here that he met and saved Burolis, a female chozo who was trying to defend her race, which was being constantly blamed for these mutant chozos that came from the darkness. She had told Sybern about an ancient city which may, in fact, hold many of the truths of the True Chozo. They ran after the information eagerly. There, they found a freak mutant, Manta. Having a profound pity for this creature, they released it and took it with them.  
When they left the atmosphere, they were quickly attacked by the True Chozo, who were more than a little upset about the break-in of their facilities. They captured the three adventurers. Just when everything looked completely bleak, Manta cleverly used his mutant powers to escape the bondage of the True Chozo and rescued his saviors. They made way to Cho and made a hasty flight.  
Soon, information of the Rebellion came their way. They made no hesisitation in joining up.  
  
  
  
Joshman773: Joshman was in control of a single character in the beginning, Jaime Wolfe. Jaime had few plans on becoming the adventuring type, until he met someone who knew his father on a routine walkthrough of a cozy little village. This man urged him to look for Natasha, his older sister which he presumed dead. Jaime eagerly took this man, Paul Ulric, under his wing in the hopes his promise was true. Paul directed him to first go to Space Station Nextima. Here, Paul used his connections to find Jaime some new allies and a virtual garrison. The idea of the mercenaries was unanimous- to link up with the rebellion and clean the Chozo out as soon as possible. Paul assured Jaime that they would end up finding.. his sister.  
  
Dark Panda: Dark started out with a single, cleverly named character... Dark Panda. Dark Panda was a reluctant Marshal. His adventures didn't really start until he ran across the lizard like creature, Mr. Quartz, who offered him a free ride to Scylla in return for the rescue of his family.  
  
DanFigaro: DanFigaro is playing as a keen namesake, Dan Fiargo. Dan is a mercenary (Although he prefers the name, Privateer.) and nothing more. If there isn't money involved, he's not involved. But, he is more than worth the money that we have put up for him. He started off working for the rebellion right away, so he had no prior background to tell here. His stories are found in the Rebellion Story Description.  
  
  
RobineA: Robine Asmar started out pretty modestly. He started out confused, and unaware of what paths his career as a champion bounty hunter should be. He spent his early days simply drifting with the wind, until he paired up with a friend, Oily, an engineering lizard. Together, they finally sought a true purpose- to remove the threat of the True Chozo on their universe. Then, they reached out to join the rebellion.  
  
Grand Magi: While he started late in the game, he has been keeping a successful storyline going despite his tardiness. He is in control of the infamous Xetrox, Bounty Hunter, and Emalf, the Engineer. They are technically members of the rebellion, but they have devoted their efforts to a real threat, the maniacal Dr. Vincent, who is trying to create a mutation greater than that of the third chozo. Also, they have become enemies with the less than popular Armageddon Clock, a bad guy with suicidal tendencies.  
  
MirandaCoo & RawleyCoop: Miranda is a merchant Killer Shark creature that has made her way into society in a very successful way. She is not really a rebel, but sponsors our cause with her deep pocket. She has leant us many a ship and more, and she has been a considerably helpful hand for Grand Magi. RawleyCoop is actually contributing to the Ravenloft story, but he has crossed our paths and drops us a few words of encouragement. In case you didn't know, MirandaCoo is RawleyCoop's daughter.  
  
Pen T Um, HugeSprite, and EMF 99 were all signed up on the Rebellion, but they virtually popped out of the game before they had any impact on the plot.  
  
  
  
Rebellion Story Description:  
  
(This is the story of the Rebellion as it was being constructed. The story starts out as soon as Luke and Houston met up with Sybern, Burolis, and Manta to protect the underwater city of Dalus against the True Chozo's attack.)  
  
As soon as the rebellion members explained their situation to the underwater people, they were locked in battle with the True Chozo, defending this city with all their might. It was a mere two ships against hundreds of Chozo ships, but the Chozo mutants were pretty stupid and nowhere near as good fighters behind the wheel as hand to hand. After a long and decisive battle, all that remained of the Chozo fleet was the head Chozo ship. Captain Carcinogen, a ruthless borg who Luke had met before his battle with Houston, hailed Luke from the head ship. He explained that Sarius was in his possesion, and under his control. Luke quickly darted into the ship after her. Carcinogen ordered Sarius to battle Luke, but Luke broke the control of Sarius. While the Captain fled in terror, Luke and Sarius tried desperately to escape, but Sarius had injured Luke while she was under the borg's control. While she was trying to drag him out to his ship, they were attacked by a group of chozo. The other rebels jumped in in time to save Sarius, but a couple Chozo stole Luke and took him off to a mutation lab. There, they tried to combine Luke with a Horned Lizard. Luckily, Sarius came to get him out and blew the place to pieces. All of the rebels escaped (After a couple more confrontations like an underwater volcano and a line of explosions.. but hey! How much detail can I afford here?) and they eventually won the battle. Unfortunately, Captain Carcinogen and Kraid both escaped. Also, in the last fleeting battle, Luke and Sarius attacked the final lone ship by themselves. While they were boarded on this ship, it took off, and took them to...?  
Soon after this, the barrier around Charybdis was let down, and the True Chozo began to spread their power to the other planets in the Messina Star System. Houston quickly figured out a quite tactical plan to spread out the new members of the rebellion and have a rebel agency on every planet. He sent Jaime Wolfe and his company as well as Robine Asmar and his company to Naiad. He then sent Sybern and Burolis to Cerberus. Xetrox and Emalf were sent to Naiad and follow the evil Dr. Vincent, who they beleived was allied with the True Chozo. Dan Fiargo was sent to obtain some valuable information from Scylla, which was completely taken over by the Chozo. Houston and Manta would stay behind and keep an eye on the Rebellion. At this time, these were the members of the rebellion.  
  
Luke and Sarius actually ended up going to Scylla as stowaways on the ship. As soon as they disembarked, they decided to try and find the underground community, which consisted of the survivors of the Chozo's brutal attack. After a confrontation with the local Borg Captain, the insane Mad Hatter, they found the underground city. Luke was instantly excepted as a leader of the resistance against the Chozo, since Scylla was his former home planet and he was quite the celebrity there. Also, he passed Sarius off as Samus Aran, so that all of the locals would follow them with a brave heart.  
They were quick to start recruiting new members for the Scylla Resistance, and hopefully in time, the Rebellion. It was here that they found a more than formidable ally, Dark Panda, and his company. Another desicive battle took place, and with the help of these brave and powerful fighters and a few thousand rebels, they destoryed the Chozo's central station, drastically weakening the grip that the Chozo had on the planet.   
Seeing the job he had accomplished, Luke decided he would report to Houston and spread his attention elsewhere as soon as it looked as if the Scyllan army could handle itself. Dark Panda got a tip of an amazing city somewhere on Naiad that would help the war efforts greatly, so he headed there....  
  
  
  
Robine Asmar got in a jam soon after he arrived at Naiad. He called to Houston, who came to help as soon as possible. He helped them to defeat a small army of Chozo which were attacking a defenseless city. They soon seperated, and Houston and Manta found their way back to Charybdis.  
However, when they arrived at their home planet again, Manta became rabid. Manta, who had to suck life energy in order for his dominant Metroid genes to survive, was starving himself in order to appear more human. This lack of energy took over his mind and made him mad. Houston was quick to knock him unconcious with a gamma ray. After he did this, he traveled to the Charybdis surface in order to find a cure for his friend's ailment. He found that while he was gone, a genetic code of him had made chaos on this planet and battered the reputation of the Rebellion in this area. Houston fled back to his ship where he found Manta mutated by the gamma ray. To make matters worse, the forlorn enemy, Captain Carcinogen, had tracked his location and boarded the ship. Carcinogen once again knocked the gruesome Manta out, and had an interesting and peaceful talk with Houston about the True Chozo. Carcinogen explained how he had been following Houston, and how it was only fair for him to tell him what the True Chozo were. He explained that a race called the Imidians had created the ultimate creature with a mix of the greatest of traits of all creatures. What they produced was an incredibly intelligent and powerful creature that looked dominately Chozian. They called them the "Second Chozo." The Imidians used the the new beings in peace, until the violent side of the Chozo finally rang out. The Imidians had to evacuate their own planet and destroy it in order to rid them of the violent Chozo. They found a new home. The Imidians were possibly the most intelligent species in the universe, but they were too curious at what the possibilities of the Chozo mutants would be like. They created yet another mutant, this one even more intelligent and more powerful. They thought they had them under control, so they made more. Soon, they had built 400 genetically enhanced Chozo birds. These were the "Third Chozo." But, once again, the Chozo's violent side raged out. They were more intelligent than the Imidians and more powerful than anything ever seen. This time, the 400 Chozos easily took over the millions of Imidians. The Third Chozo then allied with the Horned Lizards in order to began to take what they thought was their rightful place-- The leaders of the universe. They created the new mutants, the stupid hybrids of Chozo and Human and Metroid, in order to do their bidding. Those hybrids were called the "True Chozo," and they were what the rebellion was fighting. Now, the Third Chozos rested on the planet Imidia, waiting for their forces to do the inevitable- take over the universe. The way they saw it, they couldn't be stopped, because their soldiers were not actual people-- they were products. They didn't have to recruit anyone-- they just fired up the DNA machine and made a few thousand clones. There were no losses for them, and they seemed unstoppable.   
After Carcinogen explained this, he left. Houston wondered why this evil captain would tell him anything, but he realized that under all those wires their was once a real soul that was no taken over by the machine. Possibly even these borgs had a chance.  
But, he was soon called off again by Xetrox, who was having some problems with Dr. Vincent on Naiad. He had been captured and was requesting assistance. Houston ran to his rescue, only to find that Miranda Cooper beat him too it. However, he had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Vincent. He found an energy vial there, and used it to feed Manta. Manta soon returned to his normal mutant state. Then, he received a call from Luke saying that he had found something quite interesting....  
  
After Houston had found out about the Imidians, he sent Dan Fiargo to Scylla to the Chozo Central Station (Before it was destroyed) in order to find the library and the information about the location of planet Imidia. After a difficult breakthrough, (And I do mean difficult. This guy knew how to write himself in and out of a thousand different traps in the same building!) he found the information and loaded it to the Rebellion headquarters. While he was beaming it aboard, he was confronted by another ship with some more information that they wanted Dan to relay to Houston. While the other ship, the RS Balin, was uploading the information to Dan, they were attacked by a flotilla of Chozo ships. They destroyed the Balin in the middle of the upload, and Dan only received half of the information. This information sounded vitally important to the Rebellion.. now he had to deliver it.... and hope that he had enough.  
  
Sybern and Burolis were sent to Cerberus to defend a large area of the mining planet against a Chozo attack. When they arrived, they found something quite interesting- they uncovered the same story that Houston did from a library database contained in the headquarters of the mining city. But, they had little time to ponder the story as they were soon locked in battle with the Chozo. They had also been sent on a side quest by Miranda Cooper to rescue her uncle from the cities in Cerberus. She had lent them powerful ship, the Mongoose. In a most unfortunate turn of events, the rebels and their band started losing. Suddenly, they disappeared, not to be heard of for a long period....  
  
Soon after Jaime Wolfe and his company arrived at Naiad, Paul helped them trace an interesting wormhole into a mysterious planet. It was here where he had learned he would find his sister, as well as find a way to help the rebellion immensly. But, upon his arrival, he found a derelict ship. After boarding, he and his company found a group of dying Chozo. They were afflicted with a strange disease that was found in this sector. It was called Descaloda, and after a month it ate into your DNA and destroyed you. This sent quite a wave of panic through the rebels, as they were now on a timed clock... and if they went back now, they would spread this disease all through Messina. They received some information from the stranded ship that there was a race on a nearby planet called Piggies, that were immune to the virus. They went on a chase to find the piggies and the cure. When they arrived, Jaime found his sister.. apparantly, she had become a tree... (Jaime has some pretty profound stuff about planes of exsistence... it hurts my head, so I'm not even going to try and explain it here.) now, Jaime began mental training to become a more excellent fighter in mind and body. He received an old battle suit which once belonged to Samus Aran himself.   
After a few days, he collected the information that the cure to the Descaloda virus could be found in an ancient city close to the Piggy village. But, one day during his training, he was aggresively attacked by a Norfairian calling himself "Ridley." (Though if he was the real Ridley, we don't know) Jaime found himself in a desperate battle, which he was losing. Out of nowhere, a bounty hunter came and blew the Ridley away. Jaime was almot grateful for the rescue, until he noticed that his savior was one of the bounty hunters which had been hunting him for stealing a ship. They were powerful being called elementals. They were ready to drag Jaime away with excessive force until they found out about the Descaloda virus. Now, it appeared that the hunters would be joining their prey to find the cure...  
  
While all this had been going on, Xetrox and Emalf had continued the battle against Dr. Vincent, carrying it to Charybdis, where he had fled. There, they found the threat that was Armageddon clock, and became familiar with their enemy, Dr. Vincent, who now appeared to be an insane man who thought he was doing good to soceity by trying to control it. After a decisive battle against a robotic clone of Vincent, the real Vincent escaped on a mysterious and archaic ship, on which he was planning to finally put his project into action...  
  
Dark Panda found his way to an amazing underground city in Naiad that was built by a race of Chozo known as the Proto Chozo. These amazing beautiful versions of Chozo had been chosen by the Overdog over one thousand years ago to build a base to prepare the Rebellion for its final battle against the Third Chozo. (It appeared that Overdog went into the future and saw the bleak destiny of the world, and then went back in time to change things as much as he was allowed. But no one knows the Overdog's true intentions.. wouldn't it be nice to find that out?) Now, only one Proto Chozo remained- Horus. The main computer, Rainville, controlled the entire city from a large processing tower in the center of the city. Rainville was a miraculous Artificial Intelligence that had the ability to exsist in several places at once. Dark called Luke and Houston to the city immediately. Soon after moving in, it appeared that Mad Hatter and his troops tracked down Luke from Scylla and launched a killer attack. WIth the help of Rainville, the rebels managed to escape the almost hopeless situation. Then, they had an even more aggravating battle with a Third Chozo, which outmatched nearly their entire fleet, even killed Horus, except Luke got one cheap shot in while he was distracted. But, they had their first taste of Third Chozo, and they now deeply feared them.  
Soon after this, Sybern and Burolis mysteriously reappeared and regrouped with Houston and Luke. While Sybern and Burolis were explaining things to Houston, they were lead off by a small band of Chozo mutants....  
Dark Panda was reunited with Grolier and Cedric who started to work on a mysterious train since they seperated. Dark found himself travelling through his dreams on this mysterious train, and found out about a horrible danger that Mad Hatter was about to inflict upon the Proto City...  
Luke and Sarius were standing guard of the dazed Manta when they were alerted by a message that was sent out of Proto City. They traced the call and found the decapitated head of the borg, Mad Hatter, preparing to explode and send the entire city into oblivion.  
  
*** The following is a collection of character summarries by Dark Panda, who I'm sure you've heard of if you read the article. DP got a lot of fame out of Metroid: Blood of the Chozo, since the fellow who wrote the article for Nintendo Power interviewed him exclusively.***  
  
Dark Panda, Mr. Quartz, Delta, Dio, Cedric, Grolier, and others  
  
Dark Panda, a Marshal from another system, originally came to Charybdis to gain experience in the field of law-enforcement. Assigned to the city of "Scylla B" on the far side of Charybdis, Dark encountered the short lizard-man named "Mr. Quartz" in the wastelands of Charybdis. Having escaped a war being fought on his home planet of Venom, Mr. Quartz escaped with his family to Charybdis. Dark Panda helps Mr. Quartz rescue his family, who have been captured by True Chozo forces. In the process, they steal a True Chozo ship which Mr. Quartz later names "Bamboo." After dropping his family at the Marshal's guild of Scylla B, Mr. Quartz goes to Planet Scylla with Dark Panda, in order to help the resistance movement.  
Landing in the midst of a ruined city, Dark Panda and Mr. Quartz investigate a nearly destroyed Marshal Guild. Inside, they discover the former Space Pirate of Zebes, "Delta." Delta, who broke out of his cell after the attack, was imprisoned by the Scyllan Marshals simply because of the crimes of others of his species. Agreeing to join Dark's group, Delta shows them the location of the underground rebel base, under the command of Luke. Mr. Quartz takes two engineers, Cedric and Grolier, back to Bamboo, in order to modify and retrieve the ship. Dark and Delta set out into the mountains to look for a True Chozo base, and are attacked by "Diortem" ("Dio" for short), who is a metroid that escaped from a True Chozo genetics lab. Intelligent and able to speak, Dio apologizes for the attack, and joins the group. Mr. Quartz and Dark Panda are reunited, and leave with the Rebel Forces to attack the main True Chozo base of Scylla.  
An intense aerial battle ensues, and the True Chozo base in destroyed. Following a legend told by Delta, the group goes to Naiad, where they discover an entire city underground. Constructed centuries ago by the "Proto Chozo", the city is a base that was built to help the Rebels...thanks to an Overdog prediction all those centuries ago. The city caretaker, a Proto Chozo named "Horus", takes them on a tour of the city, and introuduces them to the city's computer: "Rainville". An attack by True Chozo forces nearly results in the base's destruction, and a fierce battle takes place within the massive CPU of Rainville. When the rebel forces leave for Inteira, Dark, Mr. Quartz, Luke, and Sarius decide to go, leaving the others to protect. A weapon known as the "Infinity Cannon" helps to save the sun from Dr. Vincent's mad scheme, and it is revealed that the city is capable of travelling through space. After going to Inteira, the city is used to destroy one of Dr. Vincent's weapons of destruction, while Dark and others activate a second "Infinity Cannon" on the surface of the planet. After the war, each character goes their own way. Each is given a sphere that allows them to contact the others. And thus, the story comes to an end.  
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Impressario  
  
Midway through Dark's story, a strange character appears. The Impressario, a ghostly train conductor, arrives in his "Phantom Train": the only steam-powered space-craft in existence. Constantly checking his gold pocket watch, the Impressario remains an ominous prescence throughout the remainder of the story. How is it that his Phantom Train can come and go at will? Why does the train whistle always chill people to the bone? It is later revealed that Impressario is in fact, a incarnation of Death itself. His train, able to traverse dimensional barriers, carries the "spirits" of the dead with it. After helping to destroy the Hemogoblin, the Impressario tries to take Sarius with him. After being convinced that she is loved and needed by Luke, Impressario agrees to leave her in this world. Shedding a single tear, the Impressario leaves with his train...and vanishes.  
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Dr. Vincent  
  
Ah yes...Dr. Vincent! One of the most popular villains in Metroid: Blood of the Chozo. The mad brother of Dr. Wiley and Dr. Lugae, Dr. Vincent has made it his goal to become the most famous scientist in history! Unsurpassed in knowledge of genetics and robotics, Dr. Vincent strikes a deal with the True Chozo forces. "Invade the Messina Star System," he tells them, "And I shall guarantee your victory!" In fact, Dr. Vincent merely uses the invasion to further his own sinister plan. Trillions of species are lured to the system to help the Messina inhabitants. And so, Dr. Vincent sets out to take a genetic sample from each. Spending months (literally!) building machines on each of the planets, Dr. Vincent finally obtains his genetic samples using a beam of energy generated by the machines. Combining the DNA in frightful ways, Dr. Vincent infuses it into a giant Chozo Statue. The statue, which is given the genetic codes of trillions of different species, is then named "The Hemogoblin." After rampaging around the surrounding planets for a few weeks, Dr. Vincent decides to destroy the entire system "so that no one can repeat his work." Escaping to another dimension using the "Warp Device" invented by his brother, Dr. Lugae, Dr. Vincent orders the Hemogoblin to fly into the heart of the sun, and cause a super nova. The Hemogoblin does as it is commanded, though it is attacked by many different people in the process. Finally, it sacrifices its own life to start the chain reaction that will lead to Super Nova. Though its plans are eventually thwarted, the Hemogoblin's "essence" manages to stall the fleet with a few powerful illusions, before being destroyed utterly by the Impressario.  
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I can't even begin to list the names of all the people who have contributed to my story. Most notably are: Jippykid, Blastek13, RawleyCoop, and MirandaCoo. I am attaching some of my favorite postings to Email, and shall be sending those to you shortly.  
-Dark Panda  
  
*** Speaking of Dark Panda, these are his first posts ever in the story... ***  
  
Dark Panda Postings   
  
The marshal known as Dark Panda has acquired the assistance of the small reptilian alien known as Mr. Quartz, who comes from the planet Venom. After infilitrating a True Chozo base on Charybdis, and saving Mr. Quartz's captive family, Dark seizes a True Chozo ship and goes to the city of Scylla B, where he obtains supplies for his newly acquired ship. After leaving Mr. Quartz's family in the care of the Marshal's, Dark and Quartz set out for the city of Scylla A, located on the planet Scylla.  
The distance between Scylla B and Scylla A is very slight, which is the reason why this is the most frequently used transfer point for commuting between these two planets. After sending a message to Marshal HQ, Dark instructs Mr. Quartz to set a course for the Marshal landing pad of Scylla A. The trip through space is short and uneventful. However, upon entering orbit of Scylla, Dark's ship is contacted by the ground base.  
"State your purpose and access code," the gruff voice grunts. The VidNews report was obviously correct: True Chozos have completely taken control of the outer planets.  
"We are here," Mr. Quartz begins, "to transport weaponry to the surface. However, we were not told that we needed an access code by our employer."  
"And just who is your employer?" the voice over the radio asked, slightly annoyed.  
"We were hired by the troops in the Scylla B base to deliver these weapons. That's all you need to know."  
"Very well. Proceed." The True Chozo obviously didn't want to waste his time with such trifles as a small, 12 man space craft. Fortune seemed to be with them.  
"We'll set down on landing pad 5A of the Marshal base," Mr. Quartz announced, "It appears to be the least guarded landing pad."  
Dark put on his space helmet. This was going to be a tough fire fight. Dark felt the ship make contact with the ground...  
  
As soon as Dark landed, he was hit by a barrage of fire, and an electronic voice from within the ship began to count down, giving off frequent warnings of a bomb.  
Dark Panda reeled from the blast, "What hit me?"  
"You appear to have been wounded by enemy laser fire," Mr. Quartz explained, as he pushed Dark to the ground. Hot laser beams flashed over them. Dark lifted his arm cannon and fired blindly at the source. After several volleys of lasers had been exchanged, the attacker fled cowardly into the nearby woods.  
"Uh...Dark," Mr. Quartz tapped Dark on the shoulder, "Someone has planted a time bomb on the ship!"  
"10...9...8..." the electronic voice from the bomb was counting down to destruction! Quickly, Dark rushed to the bomb and pried it off the hull of the ship. "7...6...5...," Dark tossed the bomb into the woods, just as it reached zero.  
A massive explosion detonated, completely leveling a small patch of forest. Fortunately, the ship appeared to be undamaged.  
"Are you injured?" Mr. Quartz inquired, upon noticing the laser burn on Dark's armor.  
"No, fortunately the blast only grazed me. But who attacked us?"  
"I didn't get a very good look at him, but it appeared to be some sort of mad humanoid, not a True Chozo," Mr. Quartz shook his head. People back on his home planet of Venom never acted this irrationally.  
"Well, let's secure the ship and get moving," Dark suggested. After the ship was locked tight, they hid it in a nearby rock formation, where no one would find it. Besides, the pocket homing beacon Dark carried would alert them to any change in the ship's condition. Once that was done, Dark surveyed the area. They had landed on a pad near the Marshal base on Scylla. This particular pad was farthest away from the base, and located near a wooded region. Dark and Mr. Quartz decided to investigate the Marshal Base first.  
The base was severely damaged by laser fire, and completely deserted. There was no power, and several walls had been completely collapsed. Dark turned on the light amplification visor, and was better able to see the surrounding ruins.  
Suddenly, something lashed out at his face. Stunned, Dark fell back onto the ground. Mr. Quartz drew a small laser pistol, and searched frantically for whatever had struck out. Nothing. Whatever it was, it had quickly retreated back into the shadows.  
"Who are you?" Dark called into the darkness. No response. "We mean you no harm!"  
"You say you mean no harm," a muffled voice came from the dark recesses of the ruins, "Yet you enter MY camp with weapons drawn!"  
"We were attacked outside. These weapons are purely defensive!" Dark responded, orienting on the voice. It did not sound human. There was a strange buzz when the creature spoke, as though it were some sort of insect.  
"I did not survive this long by being foolish," the creature said, emerging from the shadows. It was a space pirate of Zebes! Mr. Quartz pointed his laser pistol menacingly towards it.  
"No! Put the laser away, Mr. Quartz!" Dark extended his hands, advancing slowly towards the creature, "We came merely to repel the True Chozo invasion."  
"I was a prisoner in this Marshal base, when the True Chozo attacked. I am called Delta, and am a soldier without a purpose. After the destruction of the Mother Brain, I wandered to this planet. I was captured by the Marshals only because of my species, and locked unjustly in their detention cell. However, the underground cell was the only thing to survive the True Chozo attack, and I escaped!"  
"Well, if your intentions are peacful, would you consider coming with us?" Dark asked cautiously.  
"You mean...you do not fear me?" Delta looked puzzled, "You do not hate me, merely because of the crimes of others of my kind?"  
"I try to judge all beings fairly. That is why I am a Marshal," Dark was nervous. This place would be an ideal spot for an ambush, and Dark didn't want to remain here any longer than neccessary, "Help us fight the True Chozo, and I'll see to it that you will not be imprisoned unjustly again."  
"Very well," Delta agreed  
"I've heard of the powers of the Space Pirates, but I've never actually seen one in action before," Dark commented, "With your help, I'm certain that we can fend off the True Chozo attack."  
"You're the first person who has ever trusted me," Delta sighed, "Perhaps I can accomplish some good after all."  
"The question is, " Mr. Quartz interrupted, "Where do we go from here?"  
"I've heard rumors about a resistance movement here on Scylla," Delta said, "Perhaps we should join forces with them."  
"Do you know where they're located?" Dark looked cautiously around. Hwcase might return without warning.  
"I've seen members of the resistance in a series of caverns several miles to the east of here. We should probably go there."  
"Very well," Dark decided. They would find the resistance movement, and help them retake the planet. Delta showed them to a supplies locker that was undamaged, where they acquired new supplies. The three then set out on foot for the caverns to the east...  
  
"Tell me more about these rebels," Dark asked Delta, as they walked through the foothills.  
"It has been weeks since the True Chozo attack resulted in my freedom from the Marshals," Delta started, "I have spent these weeks trying to survive. There was enough food in the storage locker of the Marshal base to sustain me, so I made that my home. However, I did observe activities in the nearby cities. It is the same everywhere: True Chozo attack and destroy, while the rebels fight them. Chozo fight rebels, rebels fight Chozo. Everywhere, it is the same. Many people, now, fight with the rebels. Rumors, there are, that the rebels soon will win. Is this true? I do not know. But do know that rebel base is underground to east. When we get there, protect me you must, because rebels still hate pirates, like all other people."  
Delta's speech was slightly odd, but that was only because his insect jaw did not adapt well to the English language. However, his words seemed to be true, for the three soon found the remnants of a camp in the brush.  
"Looks like two people camped here," Mr. Quartz observed, "They then went that way, into the foothills."  
"How do you know that?" Dark was perplexed. He didn't see any visible evidence of footprints.  
"All people from Venom have a highly developed sense of sight. It is one of the things that makes us great pilots," Mr. Quartz swelled with pride. Well, if his reptilian eyes could see that well, the three were sure to locate the rebel base, "This way!" Mr. Quartz announced, starting off into the foothills. Dark and Delta followed close behind him.  
After what seemed like hours, they finally reached an opening in the ground. "The footprints go in here!" Mr. Quartz leapt into the opening. Inside it was dark and disorienting. This was obviously some sort of labrinth devised by the inhabitants to keep out intruders. Dark turned on his light amplification visor, but it didn't help much.  
"You cannot see in darkness?" Delta noticed. "I will show you the way."  
Dark glanced over at Delta. The space pirate's eyes were glowing bright yellow. Apparantely, he could see, even in a total lack of light. "The footprints go this way," he announced, starting down a tunnel. Dark and Mr. Quartz exchanged glances, then followed Delta. The path was winding and at times narrow. There was much evidence of sprung traps and concealed dangers, but Delta was able to successfully skirt these. Soon they could hear fires crackling around the corner. It was the dead of night, and any inhabitants were sure to be asleep; but Dark still felt it neccessary to exercise caution in entering the base.   
Upon turning the corner, Delta's eyes returned to normal, as numerous campfires produced ample light. There were many people clinging to each other around these fires for warmth, and the entire base had the atmosphere more of a refuge than a military base. Now sooner had they entered, however, than several armed guards rose and confronted them. Mr. Quartz and Delta drew their weapons.  
"No!" Dark shouted, knocking the laser out of Mr. Quartz's hand, "These are our allies!"  
"Who are you?" one of the guards asked gruffly. The people in the base began to stir at all the commotion.  
"I am Dark Panda, a space Marshal," Dark began, "This is Mr. Quartz, my pilot. And this is Delta, who has volunteered to help us fight off the True Chozos."  
"A Space Pirate? You don't expect to fool us that easily, do you? You are more likely True Chozo spies!" the snarled menacingly. The other guards grunted agreement.  
"We mean you no harm! We are here to help!" Mr. Quartz pleaded.  
"We'll wait until the leader awakens," one of the guards grinned, "And then we'll decide what to do with you!"  
Our only worry is that the True Chozo may discover our hidden base."  
"That is why we came," Dark began, "I have been assigned to repel the True Chozo invasion. My two friends have agreed to fight with me. Is there any way that we can help?"  
"Well..." the guard pondered the question for a moment. "Our leader is asleep, as well as our newfound savior. However..."  
"Newfound savior?" Mr. Quartz was puzzled. Who could the guard be talking about?  
"Yes...but there's no need to discuss that now," the guard changed the subject. He obviously didn't want to discuss this matter until he was sure of the newcomers' loyalty. "As I was saying, if you REALLY want to help us, we have a dangerous mission. The True Chozo are building bases all over Scylla. We have sent troops to attack many, but we are severely under-manned. If you can, go to the True Chozo base in the mountains to the north. It is still under construction, so security will not be fully operational. However, I cannot afford to send more people there now, as we need to protect the base. Go there, gather information, and destroy the base. Do you think you can handle that?"  
"Of course. It's my job." Dark said without humor.  
"You must be tired after your long journey. You may rest here tonight. Perhaps in the morning, you will meet our leader."  
"Our ship is still hidden near the ruined city to the west," Mr. Quartz spoke, "I need to go retrieve it. Do you have anyone who could come with me?"  
"Well..." the guard thought, "Take Cedric and Grolier with you. They are both engineers, and will help you modify your ship. They shall also serve as your protectors during the journey."  
"Thanks! I'll leave first thing in the morning!" Mr. Quartz beamed. He took great pride in his newfound ship, and was eager for this opportunity to upgrade it. "Don't worry, Dark! I'll catch up with you once the ship is ready!"  
"Take care of yourself," Dark replied.  
"These men will show you to your rooms," the guard interrupted. Three of the guards stepped forward, and led Dark, Delta, and Mr. Quartz to their quarters for the night. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day...  
  
The next morning, Dark Panda, Delta the space pirate, and Mr. Quartz the lizard pilot of Venom awoke. After joining the two engineers assigned to protect him, Mr. Quartz left for the ship. Dark Panda and Delta set out towards the northern mountains, and the True Chozo base that was being constructed there.  
  
Dark saw something out of the corner of his eye. Stopping suddenly, he looked all around. Nothing. Delta, aware of this, came back to where Dark was standing. "What is it?" he asked, glancing nervously back and forth.  
"I just thought I saw...well...never mind," It couldn't be, Dark thought. How could it possibly be one of them? They were all supposed to be dead? No, he must have just imagined it.  
"Are you sure?" Delta pressed him, aware of the visible distress Dark's face communicated.  
"It just looked like...like..."  
"Screeee!" a small alien screached, leaping onto Dark head. It had all happened so fast, and now Dark's head was inside the alien. It was sapping away at his strength, depleting his energy. His mind barely had enough strength to make the realization: Metroid. Then everything went black...  
  
"Are you alright, son? You were nearly a goner!" an old man's voice said. Everything was black. Dark Panda woke as if from a dream. Where was he? The metroid! A metroid had attacked him!  
"Whoa! Don't try to get up yet, youngster! You're still pretty weak! You're lucky your friend the Space Pirate was able to get you back here in time."  
"Where...where am I?" Dark's head was spinning.  
"Why...this is the rebel base. Your friend carried you back here after you were attacked by a Metroid. You've been asleep for nearly a day."  
"A day! Where's Delta?"  
"He's in the base, talking to some of our people. He brought back the Metroid that attacked you," the old man said calmly.  
"Brought it back?! But how?"  
"Take it easy!" the old man forced Dark to lay back down. "After the Metroid attacked you, your friend blew it off your head with a laser. He said that the Metroid started talking to him...that it could speak English. It mistook you for a True Chozo, and didn't mean to harm you."  
"A talking Metroid?"  
"It escaped from a True Chozo base, where it had been cloned through genetic engineering. Some of our people attacked the base before the process was completed, and thus the Metroid was given human intelligence and vocal ability. It says that its name is Diortem, or just "Dio" for short. The scientists say that it's a whole new breed of Metroid, created by that accident. Just rest for a while, and I'll take you to see your friend."  
Dark was about to protest, but found that he lacked the strength. Darkness closed in on him, and he fell back asleep...  
  
Mr. Quartz, along with the rebel engineers Cedric and Grolier, were heading towards the ruined city of Scylla A, to the west. Once they found the ship, they could begin modifications. Mr. Quartz was almost giddy with exicitement. A chance to put some fancy upgrades on his ship! He mused for a moment, as the three walked steadily onward. His people, on the planet Venom, had not always understood technology. In fact, they were once quite simple. Despite living in the ruins of an advanced civilization, they had almost know technical knowledge. That is...until the hated Emperor had come to their planet. Oh, they had accepted him as leader right from the start. Their trusting ways knew no evil or suspicion. The Emperor only wanted revenge against his own people, though, and used the lizards to get it. Educated in the ways of ships and technology, he taught them to fly and fight. In a sense, they did owe him a debt. But he threw their lives away, sending ship after ship on suicide missions. That was why Mr. Quartz had escaped with his family. Now he accepted technology as though he always had.   
Well, that was unimportant now. They finally reached the hidden ship, and began modifying it. Why, this upgrade is simply amazing, he thought. And I never would have thought of adding that to the engines!  
  
As soon as the ship was operation, they would drop him off at the Marshal's branch of the rebel base, where he'd be taken back to Charybdis for trial.  
"Cedric," Mr. Quartz started, "Remain here and keep a close eye on the prisoner. When he wakes up in a few hours, I don't want him to try any funny stuff."  
"Yes, sir!" Cedric stood facing the cell. He would make sure Hwcase didn't try to escape. Hwcase was famous for escapes. No one knew just how many times he had been incarcerated, but he always managed to escape somehow. Well, they had done an intensive scan of him, and removed all weapons, tools, and pieces of armor. Hwcase now wore a mere prisoner's uniform, and possessed no other items of any kind, shape or sort. His prison was totally bare, with no objects in it at all. There was no WAY he could escape from this! Satisfied that this was true, Mr. Quartz and Grolier returned to working on the ship. Within a matter of hours, it would be ready for takeoff...  
  
*** The following are my own first postings in the Chozo story***  
  
Luke cocked his head back and laughed. "Good point my friend..."  
The Trog Luke was standing line let out a hearty chuckle, too.   
"Excuse me, can I have your registration?" Said a voice from the desk.  
Luke slowly returned his sense to the reason he was present, and took notice of the impatient receptionist.  
"Umm.. yes.." He replied. "I am Luke.. Luke Allimandus.. my name should be on your list."  
The receptionist dug through a cabinent of files, being careful with her delicate nails...  
"Here we are... A... Allimandus. Oh, a tinkerer from the Solarius system, eh?"  
Luke was quick to correct her. "That's... an engineer."  
The secretary bobbed her head, taking little notice to her correction. "I suppose you're here to check out this 'True Chozo' rabble, eh?" She fidgeted with her computer, like she was only trying to entertain Luke.  
"No..." Luke answered warily. "I came here mainly because I hear some merchants are offering some good deals on Kniricksh`i power rods, and I need one for my ship.. I pretty much shot the old one... but the Chozo situation will lead me to some interesting places, no doubt." Luke adjusted the thin red visor on his blue shock guard helmet..  
The secretary looked the engineer up and down. "Looking a little young for such a serious engineer... dangerous adventures you should not be seeking... how old? Twenty- three? Twenty two?"  
Luke cut her off.. "Nineteen... but I have lived an aspiring life, ma'am, and am quite experienced in my occupation."  
The secretary giggled, now taking notice to her young conversationalist. "Well isn't that special. You look much older..." She said, noticing his broad frame and chiseled looks.  
"Well, ma'am, I must be going... I have some guilding to do."  
The secretary rested her head on her hand, and looked at Luke with a smile. "Well, whaddya say that after your guilding, you come down and get me and we can chat over a zigring lighted dinner in the local Field and Stream?"  
Luke fashioned a smile which looked somehow out of place. "Flattered, ma'am, but would not be professional."  
The receptionist grunted and returned to her computer. "Fine. Off to the guild with you."  
Luke turned around to the Trog that was behind him.  
"Tell you what, my new friend. After I have been to the guild, why don't we meet outside the front door... I would like to finish our conversation."  
The Trog made a nod from under her thick, tattered garments. Luke then trodded off to the guild.  
  
The young Trog hobbled up to the desk, and slowly lowered her heavy rabbled hood, revealing the tattered but somehow beautiful face of a young girl, a scar running down her cheek, with greasy blonde hair.  
"Here for registration.. ma'am."  
The receptionist turned slowly to the Trog with accusing eyes. "Did he just snuff me off for you? The nerve..."  
"Umm..." she began.  
"Never mind... okay. What are you here for."  
"Well.. I'm just registering as a citizen..."  
"Fine.. I have your name here, Sarius. Welcome to the Charybdis lower class. Now, go wait for your little friend at the door."  
"Okay, but..."  
"JUST GO. I have many to serve, and you set me back far."  
Sarius bowed her head and walked out slowly... the life of a Trog...  
  
Hallo!  
  
My name is Luke Allimandus, human of Solarius, son of Corajus Allimandus. Of course, if you are anyone from this universe, you've heard of the Allimandus brothers, Corajus and Mellastile, who could fix anything in the known universe at a price that could not be beat. I will be spending the next 12 weeks in Charybdis, and will be willing to sell my services, being a descendant of the legendary Allimandus line. You will find my services valuable and indispensible. I can fix most anything in short time, and my rates are undoubtly the best on this side of the universe. I love my work, so don't be shy with the big jobs.  
  
A young woman enters the guild, bows politely, and begins speaking:  
  
"I am Sarius Dallas, whose origin is unknown even to me. I was raised in the alleys of Porardum, a suburb of Charybdis City. I have come here seeking a life. From living in poverty, I have learned tactics in stealth, theivery, and martial art which may prove useful... if they are needed. I am willing to sell any services... and I will accept post-payments... meaning you won't have to pay me until my job is good and done. I will prove myself."  
  
Luke wandered aimlessly through the entryway of the citizen registration complex, fidgeting with his helmet. At last, Sarius came walking to, cloaked completely in her dark cloaks.   
"Sarius? You registered quicker than I had planned..."  
Sarius nodded, not saying another word.  
"Sarius? Where is the cheerful girl I has just talked to about the comical race of orcines? I wished to finish that subject."  
Sarius pulled her helmet off, showing her scar and her greasy blonde hair.   
"The receptionist remarked me as ugly." She said. "Am I ugly?"  
Luke warmed a smile. "Oh, alas, my friend Sarius. The woman who registered us was a narrow minded simpleton, ignorant of the word around her. I doubt that she is filled with any emotion but desire. She was bitter of your beauty. For beauty is in the eye of the beholder- and she must have held you as beautiful, or she would not have thought you as a threat."  
"But.. my scar.."  
Luke laughed. "We all bare scars, my friend!" At this, Luke unstrapped his helmet, and took it off, revealing his stony face, one eye of which was artificial, with a silver mettalic outline. "You see. None are perfect."  
Sarius seemed to relax a little. "I do not feel like continuing our conversations on orcines. Instead, I ask you this. Am I correct in fearing for my future. I have travelled several hundred from Porardum to come here, to Rogell. And now this fight with the "True Chozo." I fear that my struggles to start a real life may be in vain..."  
Luke put a warm hand on her shoulder. "Now, now. The fighting is still several days away." He said, looking onto the horizon, now filled with swift lights of lazers, plasmas, and bullets. "With any luck, this entire problem will be over with... knowing our bounty hunters, there won't be much surprise if we win quickly..."  
"But Samus has disappeared..."  
"Ohhh, she'll be back. From what I've heard of her, there's more to her than a one shot-downer. I have travelled in the bounty hunter circles.. with a man that was very close to Samus... who even travelled with her on the extermination of the metroids."  
"You have a place to stay tonight, no?" Said Sarius, totally changing the subject.  
"Why, yes...."  
"I have none.. please, take me in for the night, until work comes calling. I would like to further hear your predictions of the future."  
"As you wish. I can not argue with a lady."  
Luke pressed the call button on the nearby bus stop panel, and the auto bus was soon there to pick them up.  
  
"Lights On." Luke stated, as he walked in to his apartment. Soon, the place lit up.  
"Nice place you have here." Sarius commented.  
"My father and his brother travelled here often.. the merchants are possibly some of the most reasonable in the galaxy. They bought a home here. Being an engineer, I've managed to keep it maintained. I'm opening up a branch office here."  
"Perfect.. but, I would like to continue our discussion on the Chozo."  
"Ahhhh... well, where did we leave off."  
"You told me of a bounty hunter you knew.. a close friend to Samus Aran?"  
"Ohh! Yes. His name.. his name was Houston Barrimonde. A stout fellow.. a little self-confident, and a little too out for himself, but still a pretty good guy. He was there when Samus toppled Mother Brain for the second time. I was the engineer in his station, and we spent many hours chatting about gizmos and improvements and what not. He took me flying many times... we were fast friends. He told me stories of Samus. Apparantly, she is related to Chozo..."  
"Really? How so?" Sarius broke in, obviously a little interested.  
"Well.... she was adopted by the Chozo. They gave her some Chozian blood so she could use a special suit, the same famed suit she uses to this day. Anyways, he took me for a visit to meet the Chozo birds.. he had become an honorary member. They were wise, and very peaceful.. they have a vast history... and few remain."  
"So.. how are these 'True Chozos' possible?"  
"A question I ask myself often.. I can't see these chozo as a violent species.. they seem simply too odd. I think those that now battle are too hasty... and I have decided I will spend my spare time doing nothing but pondering the exsistance of these 'True Chozos.'"  
"An interesting thought, indeed..."  
"I am a professional engineer... and my expertise is matched by few... I have become quite popular through several galaxies. Now, I strive to become more.. to leave my mark on the world. And, in all truthfullness, I think my break may lie here, in breaking this clamor of 'Chozo.' And, I beleive I can do it."  
"Spectacular.. I hope that some day, I should be able to set my heart on a goal like so..."  
"All in good time.... I see you have skills just as I do, although they are hardly similar. You have heart, my friend, and if you stick to number one, you can go somewhere... but now, the day grows old, and the fighting outside becomes more fierce. It has been a hectic day for us both, and it is time for sleep. We must wake early tomorrow to get an outlook on the world.. and you may spend your dreaming moments contemplating what I have said."  
"Very well.." said Sarius. "Very well..."  
  
  
Luke rose slowly, basking in the light of the Charybdis morning. He waddled to the west window, peering out into the morning horizon. "Ahhh.. the morning..." Then, immediately, he ducked as he saw a great beam of light pass front his window. He was safe.... the beam had not even touched his home.. but he rubbed his eyes and took a closer glance outside. The fighting had not ceased since the night. And, it had drifted less that half a mile inwards to the city... coming ever so close to his adobe. He quickly aroused Sarius.   
"Sarius! We must flee! The fighting is more rampant than I had thought! Our forces have done little to hinder the progress of the True Chozo."  
Sarius slowly wandered into counciousness, scratching some part of her body, for she had spent the night in her Trog garb.  
"Ohhhhhh.... dear... we can't leave with you in such a rabble." Luke stated, frantically, keeping his eye on the west window like a lazer was going to knock through and send him towards the next floor. "Quickly.. go bathe.. lord knows you need it. If you are going to be travelling with me, we need to make you look less suspicious.. less of a Trog..."  
Sarius, though still dazed, made gesture of understanding the commands, and trotted off to the bathroom. Luke reached into a nearby closet. "Oh, my.... what could I clothe her in to make her look more appealing... damn, I should get to know more women! It might help to have a collection of women's clothing!" He pulled something out that was a uniform, similar to his own. "This will have to do.. dear old dad's uniform... I hope she does not get to comfortable in it, for there are some deadly features I would rather naught have her discover." He swung it around and into the bathroom. "This will be your new garb, while travelling with me. Put it on hastely, for we must make flight."  
Soon, Sarius was out the door. Luke grabbed her by the arm and hurried her down many flights of stairs. He then entered a code into a nearby security lock, and a large door opened.   
"ShadowFax On!" He stated, after which a nearby ship made a buzz and a hurr and activated. "Cockpit.. open!" The doors to the machine opened smoothly. "Come now! We must be off!" Luke and Sarius scrambled into the ship, and soon it was off.  
  
The ShadowFax was soaring above the Charybdis landscape, making heed to avoid all other ships.. considering they were probably after him...  
"I would hope that this ShadowFax of yours was installed with some self-defense mechanisms." Sarius stated, worridly.  
"I'm afraid not.. this is a prototype ship, which I had not planned to use. But the scramble gave me no choice. My running ship is back on Scylla, and this was one I was simply working on. It's fuel source, Uranium, is becoming low. I will stop by the guild, which is a good three miles away from the fighting, and see if I can find a merchant willing to sell some Uranium at a fair price. Otherwise, we will be forced to walk away from danger... for my ship won't travel far without some more juice."  
"So be it." Sarius sighed.  
The ship made a smooth landing on the pad of the Citizen Registration Center. The two took the bypass stairs down to the first floor, and walked into the guild hall.  
"The Merchant's Guild is on the second floor.. how I hope someone will have some Uranium!"  
"Yes, indeed..."   
Sarius was cut off by one cloaked in dark cloth... so thick was it that his face could not be seen. He nudged Sarius.  
"Excuse me." He said. "Are you the Sarius of the Trog guild?"  
Sarius looked herself up and down, checking out her new outfit before answering. "Yes.. yes, I am..." she answered, unsure of herself.  
"I have heard you are swift and stealth, and are excepting delayed payments. I need you hand for hire, I do."  
"I'm afraid not, strange sir. I think you may be seeking a bounty hunter."  
"No.. this job is not one for the typical bounty hunter... much more.. interesting..."  
Luke grabbed her arm. "This is not a good idea. We must get out of here."  
"Bye!" Sarius muttered under her breath to the cloaked one.  
Luke rushed quickly to the second floor, and burst in. He was surprised to see the merchants there, calmly packing thier stuff.  
"Excuse me," Luke started, "But can I purchase some Uranium?"  
An aged and tall man walked up to Luke. "Yes, I can help you. My name is..."  
"Your name does not matter to me, stranger. Do you deal in Uranium?"  
"Yes..."  
"Give me 30 pounds."  
"That will be... 3,500 credits."  
"Great mothers of Carrion!" Exclaimed Luke. "Have you no mercy! I am in need of rush!"  
"And I am in need of profit." The merchant explained.  
"Oh, fine... by lord, this will drain my entertainment budget for a month!"  
Luke forked over the money, and whirled around to the door.  
"Well, Sarius, we better be off now. Where to, I'm not sure..."  
But as he uttered these words, he discovered that Sarius was not there!   
  
Palos was in the middle of his contact from the Trog guild when a burst was heard, and a figure rushed into the room., garbed in a cloak. The figure grabbed the red metraid by surprise and held it steady withing it's arms. The skin of the cloaked one had a rough and metallic feel to it.  
"Do not struggle, creature." The figure said in a low voice. "You'll make this easier for both of us..."  
"Let me go!" The creature shrieked.   
"You have learned to mimic the tongue of man, eh, metraid? Well, little good will it do you..."  
The figure took the metraid into a tight grasp, silencing it's rantings, muffling them into it's sleeve. The cloaked one then looked for a retreat...  
The cloaked figure clutched onto the red metraid even tighter...  
BOOOOOOOOOOM! A good portion of the east wall had been knocked out, and a highly armored bounty hunter came stumbling through the hole, keeping a steady laser on the cloaked kidnapper.  
"Give me the metroid, and no one gets hurt." The bounty hunter said, in a techtronic voice.  
The cloaked figure glanced around nervously.   
"Power gas on!" the figure muttered.   
Soon, a gas pocket burst from under the cloaks of the kidnapper. The gas was heavy, and flowed quickly under the helmet of the assailant. He fell.  
"Oh no! They got Imega!" A voice yelled from down the hall.   
"Uh oh... company.." the cloaked one muttered. "This will only be worth half fare, but I can't chance dragging you out.. not enough time."  
The kidnapper pulled out a syringe, and stuck it far into the metraid, pulling out a sizable amount of clear plasma.  
"That will be all!" The cloaked one said, and vanished.   
The metroid lay still on the floor... the backup of the bounty hunter rushed into the room and found the unconsious, if not dead, red metraid....  
  
The cloaked one clutched her vial tightly, and ran down to the first floor of the guild.   
"I got it!" She screamed to the short alien ahead.  
"Good.. come with me..." the creature yelled.  
"What! Just pay me up front! I have a friend here who I cannot leave..."  
Just then, the team of bounty hunters from the metraid's room came rushing through the halls in a noisy haste. The cloaked kidnapper then decided to follow the alien. As soon as she stepped out the door, the two figures disappeared in a quick flash...  
  
"Take off your hood, alien." The short, alien figure said.  
"Okay.. but you must take off yours."   
The cloaked one lifted her garments... and there stood Sarius Dallas, in the engineer uniform she borrowed from Luke Allimandus.  
Then, the little alien took off his cloak. There stood a little lizard creature, with a pale green complexion. There were little spikes out of his back and belly, and he had hard green scales near his head.  
"Oh, dear.. who are you?" Sarius reacted.  
"None of your business." The creature answered, hardly noticing her questionable tone. "Follow me."  
Sarius followed the creature down a long hall, shaped like a triangle, blue in color. The creature then muttered a strange series of consonants, and a large door opened to the right. Sarius followed the alien in to it.  
Sarius stood in shock and gazed upon the creature in front of her. A larger version of the alien that lead her here, although uglier.   
"Hello, Sarius..." It mumbled. "Nice to see you again..."  
Sarius looked surprise. "See me again? This is the first time we have met!"  
The creature smiled.. or at least it looked like he did. "So it is... nevermind that."  
Sarius cleared her head. "I need those 50,000 credits.. and then I need to get back to ground. I have a friend that is probably wondering where I've been."  
"If you were that desperate, you shouldn't have went for the metraid in the first place."  
"I need the money, and the thought of such a simple five minute job was innignorable. You didn't tell me any danger was involved!"  
"You seem to be a hard-boiled type, Sarius. I expected you to be ready for trouble. I had little time to spare, because those bounty hunters had come for the metraid themselves. You were first pick.."  
"I find the coincedence to odd.... but I just want my payment!"  
"Ohhhh.. you'll get your payment."  
When Kraid said that, the little alien poked her with a small needle, and she fell silently.  
  
Luke rushed out the Merchant's guild where he had just purchased his uranium...   
"Sarius? Sarius? Where are you?"  
A party of bounty hunters who were scurrying around the hall suddenly turned towards Luke.  
"You know the Trog, Sarius?" The one dressed like a leader asked.  
"Yes... she was with me..."  
Suddenly, the Bounty leader whistled. In the blink of a cat's eye, lazers were flying towards Luke. A few well placed shots soaked into his armor. Although it was lazer resistant, it wasn't invincible, and started spewing sparks from some of the more sensitive parts. Luke began running away.  
"After him!" One of the bounty hunters called.  
Luke rushed out the back door, and after checking both directions for more hunters, he started running around the guild, and ducked into his ShadowFax.  
"TAKE OFF, TAKE OFF, TAKE OFF!" Luke sputtered, hurrying the ship off.  
Soon, ShadowFax was jetting away from its assailants.   
"It's a good thing that I gave Sarius my dad's old engineering suit... I'll be able to find out where she is, if she's still alive... was I wise to take in such a strange gal?"  
"Tracking on." Luke said, checking the sky to make sure there wasn't a bounty bogy on his tail. "Track Allimandus suit model RX-02."   
The ship's monitors pulled out a scan of the known universe.. then it zoomed in on the Messina Star System. Then, it zoomed up on planet Charybdis.  
"Good.. she's still on this planet.. she's got some questions to answer."  
Finally, the monitor started blinking into the atmosphere, and the monitor zoomed into its destination.  
"ALLIMANDUS MODEL RX-01 IS LOCATED ON A BRINSTAR FLAGSHIP. COORDINATES 36-41908-349."  
"Captured by a BRINSTAR flagship?" Luke thought to himself. "I don't think they've come to help the Chozo situation. And there's no doubt that there's some dangerous horned lizards on board... my ship is not ready for battle, though..."  
Luke threw his head back, lost in a panic of thought. Finally, he cleared his head.  
"I've got to go after her... for all I know, there could be an entire league of bounty hunters on my tail just for being seen with her... she's got some explaining to do. I've got enough equipment to the point where some horned-lizards won't be much of a problem.. but it's getting in there I'll need somehelp with..."  
Suddenly, Luke got an idea. "Computer! Track down Houston Barrimonde... he's got to be around here somewhere... no way that bounty hunter would leave an event like this."  
The computer went through the scan again. "Houston Barrimonde found..."  
"Yes! I knew you wouldn't let me down. Open channel to Houston Barrimonde."  
Suddenly, a clear monitor of the broad build of the bearded Houston. He smiled.  
"Luke! This is the last place I'd expect to run into you..."  
"Listen, there's no time to explain.. I need your help rescuing a friend.. you aren't too busy, are you?"  
"No.... I'm open... where to?"  
"A Horned-Lizard Flagship.. nothing big, I just need some ship firepower to get in."  
"All right!" Houston cried. "A little action."  
"Lock on to my coordiantes. I'll go aboard your ship, and explain everything."  
"Roger!" The screen went blank.  
Luke sat back in his chair, satisfied. If anyone could help him, Houston could.  
  
  
Sarius eyed the stale bread that a large chozo bird just handed to her. She felt she was in no condition to eat. She looked her costume up and down.. they had disabled every function.  
"Dammit!" Sarius cried. "What can I possibly do! Ohhhhh.. so many questions..."  
"Young human.. perhaps I can help..." a voice whispered from the cell next to her.  
"Who.. who is that?"  
"I am a Chozo bird.. a Real Chozo, not one of these blood-starved mutants...."  
Sarius looked over at the bird slowly. He was old, or at least looked old. His thick skin was wrinkled, and his eyes sagged. He looked unhealthy.  
"Chozo Bird.. perhaps.. perhaps you can tell me what's going on..."  
The Chozo bird nodded. "It is logical to ask a Chozo Bird about a Chozo bird.. but these are no ordinary chozo birds... the real chozos are peaceful, and can not naturally wage war. In fact, most Chozos find it impossible to kill anything..."  
"Then what is going on in here? These birds are anything but peaceful."  
"Simple." Said the old bird. "I don't think they are Chozo birds."  
Sarius squinted. "What?"  
"No... A chozo can often sense another chozo, and these don't even speak in the same tongue. They are different.. more vigorous.. more violent. They feel greed, something Chozos have never looked upon since the beginning of the race."  
"What could possibly credit for.. a whole new race."  
"I think someone has been tampering with the fabric of life.. someone has been creating unnatural creatures."  
Sarius thought for a moment, then stood up in fear, nearly knocking her head on the narrow roof. "The Metraid! The Metraid! They made me capture red metraid blood!"  
The old bird's eyes suddenly grew large. "Metraid blood? Red Metraid Blood?"  
"Yes." Said Sarius. "But Red Metraids and Green Metroid are two totally different races. I mean, the red metraid can't be violent."  
"Yes." Said the bird. "But a green metroid was an evolved red metraid.. evolved by gamma rays... and if a red metraid is created and is put under gamma rays while an infant..."  
"Oh no! They could recreate the entire race!"  
"And Samus Aran was the only one with the power to destroy them.. no one else could do it. Only her suit and experience could accomplish what she has.. no army in the world could stop metroids now.."  
"I have to get the metroid blood back!"  
"That's not going to happen." Said the bird. "By now, it is probably out of the star system, and in the hands of some DNA chemisist...."  
Sarius bowed her head in silence..   
The silence was interupted by a great clamor down the hall. Lazer fires, screams, and slams could be heard. Suddenly, Luke came rushing through the prison door.  
"Sarius! We need to get you out of here!"  
"Oh, LUKE!" She screamed.  
Luke looked left and right, checking for more horned lizards or the occasional Chozo.   
"DeWielder on!" He said. A small mechanism on his suit jagged out, and fired a small lazer at the primitive lock.  
"Help me too!" The bird said.  
Luke did not hesitate. He released the bird from his confines.  
"Now, we must go." Said Luke. "I have a feeling we have more company than I expected."  
  
Sarius took a lazer from Luke, and walked backwards cautiously. Luke grabbed his second lazer and walked forward, making sure that one of them kept an eye on the angles at all times. They travelled slowly so the old chozo bird could keep up, and so they would be able to have warning of anything hostile.  
"We're almost to my hatch." Luke said. "Houston should be there, ready to get out of here..."  
Just then, a huge explosion occured in the right wall, and three chozo birds came rushing out. Saris barely hesitated, and gunned down two of them. Luke ended the quick battle, and finished off the last one.  
The three turned around again, quickly.  
"That was close..." Luke started.  
Just then, a Chozo Bird leaped on the old Chozo. He pinned him down with his claws, and opened his mouth. Just then, a huge tongue lashed out, and stuck to the old bird's head. The attackers head started to buldge.  
BLAM! Luke shot the creature after recoiling from the surprise. But it was too late. After the creature fell off, it tore off part of the bird's skin from it, and he began bleeding at a hopeless rate.  
"No time to mourn.." Luke said. "We must get off..."  
Luke started running down the hall, but Sarius huddled next to the creature.  
"Old Bird! Old Bird! Speak to me."  
The old bird's eyes stayed close, but his mouth opened. "That.. that was no real chozo." The bird started choking on his own blood. "We don't even have real tongues... that creature's abilities were impossible. Find out what is going on, and end it, for the sake of the Chozo..."  
Sarius was going to cry, but she decided that it was time to get out... but she took one last look at the bird...  
"We gotta get out of here!" Luke screamed from far down the hall. He had blasted two horned lizards already.  
In an act of sad frustration, Sarius kicked the dead bird that had attacked the old bird in its wound, and watched satisfied as it limply fell against the wall and dropped down silent. She than ran down the hall to Luke, and finally into the bounty hunter ship of Houston Barrimonde.  
When Sarius got on the ship, she decided to quickly clean the blood from the bird off her boot she kicked it with... but she noticed.. it was RED!!! The True Chozo that killed the old bird had red blood.. but the old chozo had green blood... she shoke from her shock, and went to the bridge, to meet the legendary Houston Barrimonde, who had supposobly travelled the stars with Samus Aran.  
The first thing she saw was Luke, keeled over to catch his breath. Then, she saw Houston. A wide built, handsome man, in a blue battle suit and a bounty hunter helmet.  
"Hello, Houston. It is an honor to be in your presence."  
Houston just stood in complete silence, his mouth agape at the sight of the young woman.  
"What is wrong, friend?" Luke asked, concerned.  
"She.. she's Samus... SHE'S SAMUS ARAN!!!!" he screamed  
Both Luke and Sarius jerked back in shock... then Luke slowly turned his head to Sarius.   
  
"SHE IS SAMUS! I SWEAR IT! I'D KNOW HER ANYWHERE!" Houston cried.  
"No... no.. I'm not.. I've been Sarius all my life!" Sarius cried.  
Luke looked at Sarius in awe. "Think back, Sarius.. what do you remember from your childhood?  
Sarius stood silent...  
"Anything.. anything at all?"  
Sarius looked down. "No..."  
Houston looked a little calm. "Then.. perhaps you have amnesia?"  
Sarius shook her head. "No.. I have been around enough to hear of Samus's deeds.. even before she was lost.."  
"There's a way to test this." Houston said. "Samus was part Chozo.. the Chozo fused some of their blood with her when they raised her as an orphan... if I can get a drop of Sarius's blood.."  
Sarius pulled a needle from her suit and pricked herself. "See for yourself."  
Houston put the needle in a small case in the ship. "Computer.. analyze this blood."  
The computer jarred and whirlled... then it spit out its output. "95% Human Blood. 4% Chozo Blood."  
Sarius stood straight in shock. "This can't be.. I swear.. I swear.."  
Houston scratched his head. "Perhaps.. an identical twin?"  
Luke shook his head. "No.. no... Samus got the blood after she was born.. this isn't right."  
Sarius stood, shivering.  
Luke stepped forward. "How did you get on that ship? And what did you learn there?"  
"I went to that creature who addressed me while you were buying the Uranium for ShadowFax." Sarius said. "He offered me 50,000 credits to go and get a blood sample from a red metraid in the Trog guild.... I couldn't pass it up.. it was so simple.. but then, a bunch of Bounty Hunters came after me, and the creature took me to its ship. I met this big thing that called itself.. Kraid, I think, and..."  
Houston cut in. "KRAID! Few creatures have I met that were more evil than he... the king of horned lizards, he is. He lead the Space Pirates in the past, shadowed only in command by Ridley, a flying lizard creature. They were responsible for the Metroid scare of lore, which Samus Aran halted.... its a scary coincidence that he would be after Metroid's blood..."  
"That's what that bird we rescued told me." Sarius continued. "Apparantly.. the 'True Chozo' are mutants.. creatures that were genetically altered. And, if they have the technology to do that, I have little doubt in my mind that they could recreate green metroids by evolutionizing them through Gamma Rays..."  
Houston nodded in melancholy. "And, if they create Metroids, they would have complete control over them..."  
"And they would do whatever they would with them..." Luke murmerred...  
Houston stepped forward. "There is only one thing we can do.. see to it that this blood is stopped before it reaches more evil hands..."  
Sarius stood up. "That isn't going to happen. If that bird knew anything, that blood is halfway across the star system by now..."  
"The chozo have created a barrier around our city.. and have outposts surrounding the planet." Luke said. "Escape is not possible..."  
"Well, we'll just have to make it possible..." Houston said, as if he was talking to himself. "We'll have to help the resistance. Luke, if you can get the ShadowFax's weapon systems on line, we'll be a deadly force. We can help out as much as we can, and with some worthy help, we can shut down enough Chozo to work our way out..."  
"But we need to inform someone of our doings so far." Sarius said. "How do we know who to trust?"  
"We'll have to find someone with a good record that has some military power. If we can take a strategic look on this thing, we can knock off the key ships and skip past the excess baggage." Houston stated.  
"It might work." Luke said, a bit more confident. "But we need to figure out who we will ally with..."  
"I'll return us to your home, if it is still in tact." Houston said. "If it is, we can get to work on ShadowFax, and maybe Sarius can get to work on finding a suitable ally...."  
"Then let us go." Luke said, solemnly. "There may be hope in this desperate situation yet..."  
  
Houston wiped the oil of his brow. "Okay.. hand me the Kniricksh`i power rod..."  
Luke handed his power rod to Houston, which he just recenlty purchased from a merchant. "Is it the right size?" He said to Houston, who was currently under the ship ShadowFax, working in the engine.  
"A little loose, but an excellent fit none the less." He said, placing the new rod in the engine and taking the old, rusted one out.  
"Well, Houston." Luke said, trying to start soem conversation. "Whaddy'a think happened to old Samus?"  
"I don't know. Ever since the crash land, I've heard little on her.. besides the fact she was in a hospital. I know that if I could meet up with her, we could team up and kick some Chozo butt..."  
"Houston, I heard that Samus didn't like being your partner much."  
Houston chuckled. "Oh, she was a stubborn lass, she was. But, while I am no where near the fighter as she, I do know my way around mechanics better, and I was a valuable asset to her.. without me, she would be a rotting corpse on a pirate trap."  
"You know Samus isn't one to regret things."  
"Yes, but she has a sense of honor..."  
"The ship is ready to fly now, correct?" Luke said, changing the subject.  
"Definately.. and I have auxillary power hooked up to one of the frontboard lazers.. not much, but a little firepower is better than none."  
"I suppose..."  
Luke was cut off in mid sentence by a frantic Sarius, rushing through the door. "News! News!" She paniced.  
"What is it, dear?"  
"Overdog has reported... space station Nextima... is going down.."  
Sarius keeled over panting.   
"Please... continue.." Luke said, calmly but anxiously.  
"The Chozo have attacked Nextima.. and it needs some evacuation power. We need to go up there! That is the one place where we can team with the military, and break some ice in the resistance."  
Houston looked at Luke. "ShadowFax is probably the fastest ship this side of the world... and it has cargo room large enough for 200 head... but..."  
"But...." Luke knew what was coming.  
"But we have only one low-power lazer..... and the cloaking devices suck up energy like candy, and our gravitational flaxxons are still untested..... to say the least, what we have on our hands is a minimal defense, high-speed, cargo ship."  
"We're going to take her up, Houston. It's now or never. We need to help the resistance while there is still a resistance to help."  
"Fine then..." Houston stated, somehow backingly. "We will go.... and may the kings of Galador be with us.. for this is going to be one high-risk venture."  
  
ShadowFax streaked across the midnight sky toward space, leaving nothing but a logn stream of light behind it.  
"How far, and how long?" Houston asked.  
"Looks like... 321 miles.. we should be there in about 5 minutes, and speed 6."  
The ride was going smoothly, when suddenly the silence was cut by Sarius's shriek.  
"What is it, Sarius?"  
"Tactical Radar shows bogy at 12 o' clock.. slow down, or we'll craash right into it!"  
In a split second, Luke reached to the dash and pressed the emergency thrusters. The ship came to a dead stop... right behind a Marshal Ship.  
Houston's eyes nearly bugged out. "Retreat..." he said.  
Luke looked at him, befuddled. "Wha?"  
"Just go..."  
Suddenly, the transmission monitor lit up, and a awesome marshal could be seen on the monitor. He was wearing a large energy gravity suit, and he donned a large lithium mask. his Visor was lit up in infrared.  
"Hello, Houston.. our paths have crossed again."  
Houston swallowed. "I hope that lazer of ours has some balls on it.. we're going to need it."  
  
"Houston!" Luke cried, panicing. "What's wrong?"  
"That's a marshal who's had a vendetta on me since day one.. don't ask me why, and don't ask me what for... but we need to defend ourselves, and FAST!"  
"But we only have one lazer on the entire ship!" Sarius screamed. "And your marshal friend there is on a PeaceKeeper OZ model 669... that thing could be used to wipe out an entire planet under the right pilot."  
"But we have the fastest ship in the known universe." Houston stated, gripping the controls. "If we can't outblast him, we'll outmanuever him..."  
Houston was answered as the ship recoiled from a blast, ricketing through the air wildly.  
"I'm flying, Houston." Luke hollered over the clamor. "Just hang on, and we can get out of here alive."  
Luke flung the controls back, and the ship dived. He then jolted them around a bit, and the ship arose, directly behind the PeaceKeeper. Luke slammed on the fire button, and watched satisfied as a stream of fire came flying from ShadowFax.   
The blasts all soaked into the PeaceKeeper, leaving few visible marks and kicking up no more than sparks.  
"Uh oh..." Sarius muttered. "We've got bigger problems than we planned."  
The ship's monitor buzzed in once again. "Ohhhhhhhh.. Houston!" The voice of the marshal spoke again. "That was not smart... you either give yourself up now, or I'll have to pay you back..."  
Luke pressed the transmit button, preparing to throw a series of insults back at his opponent. But, before he could even speak one word, the computers broke in.  
"Teleportation from ShadowFax Model 00 to Peace Keeper Model 669 in progress."  
Luke whirled around to the single cell teleportation chamber in the back of ShadowFax. And there, he saw the disappearing image of Houston, waving goodbye with a solemn look on his face.  
The ship's monitors blinked in once again. "Ohhhhhhh.. look who decided to show up to save his friends?" The marshal snickered. "That will be all, sirs. But you can expect for me to drop by a little later for you."  
Luke watched at the PeaceKeeper blazed away.  
  
"Oh.. dear.." Sarius mumbled.  
Luke and Sarius sat still for a moment in silence. Finally, Luke broke the ice.  
"What do you suppose the marshal wanted with Houston?"  
Sarius shook her head. "I don't know.. I mean, he was a bounty hunter, but he never went committing crimes.. right?"  
Luke nodded. "Nope. Houston was a pretty straight arrow, despite being a bounty hunter. He was after treasure, not assasination."  
"Well..." Sarius mumbled.  
"Well... we have two choices. We can go back to the Marshal Guild and ask what happened to Houston.. or we can get up to Nextima and get those people out."  
"I think Houston would have rather had us break the people out. I'm sure whatever Houston did, he doesn't deserve instant death. He'll be alive when we get back, and we can straighten this all out."  
"Okay. Setting course for Nextima Space Station. Speed 7."  
ShadowFax blazed off into the darkness.  
  
"Okay.. after three years, you finally have me. Now, can you tell me what you want with me?" Houston asked the Marshal, obviously and rightfully quite angry.  
"First off, I'm not a Marshal at all." The large blue-suited figure said.  
"Then what are you?"  
"I'm a mutant, Houston. I belong to the 'True Chozo.'"  
"What? Impossible?"  
"No. Actually, there are many humans working for True Chozo, but I am no human. I am a mutant."  
"And what do you need with me?"  
"Two things. Your information... we know you knew Samus Aran quite well.. in fact, we understand you were her partner for quite a long time. She is a major threat to us, even while she is still being hospitalized."  
"You will not touch her.."  
"Ohhhh, not unless she touches us. You see, we may be savage, but we aren't butchers. We kill only what we need to."  
Houston thought back. What was he talking about. As far as he could see, the True Chozo suddenly appeared out of the blue and just started killing people. But then he thought again... why did they choose Charybdis, one of the most well defended planets in the Messina Star System, as their first attack? And why were they knocking off Space Stations... it made little sense. But Houston bit back his tongue and listened to the Marshal.  
"And as for the second thing." He said. "We need.. your identity..."  
"What?"  
Just then, the Marshal.. errr.. mutant, reached behind his head and pressed the release button on his helmet. It loosened with a whisk of air, and the Mutant lifted it from his head. And then, Houston saw the most frightening thing... shocking thing.. he could have possibly seen then.  
  
He looked straight into the face of himself, snickering and laughing wildly... evilly....  
  
The Ship ShadowFax pulled up into the violently shaking Nexima. Boy, had they come late.  
"Looks like the power core has been smacked." Luke said, looking at his diagnostic monitors.   
"We don't have much time." Sarius stated, jumping out of the ShadowFax.  
Luke lifted his arm up, and looked into his wrist monitor. "SHIP DIAGNOSTIC ON!" He screeched. "Locate largest density of living beings on ship." He watched as his computer ran through its always tedious galaxian scan, and zoomed into a section of the ship marked Z3. "Number of Citizens in this area- 157" The computer read.  
"Good.. just about our capacity limit."  
"Let's go!"  
They leaped in the translevel floor, which is like an elevator the size of a room. Sarius pounded the buttons Z3, and the platfrom took off.  
"Do you think we're going to make it?" Sarius asked, turning to Luke.  
"I hope so..." He said solemnly. "I hope so..."  
Just then, the elevator staggered. The lights in the room went out, and things got noisy, as the red alarm buzzer began echoing through the halls.  
"The elevator stopped." Sarius said, a little of guard. When she recovered, she got a little more excited. "THE ELEVATOR STOPPED! WE'RE TRAPPED!"  
"No! We directly on floor B2... the ship is a five minute jog from here...."  
Luke darted for the door, Sarius close behind him. But he was stopped short by the menacing figure of a Chozo War Bird, its tongue flapping in and out of its mouth. It slapped its tongue around the throat of Luke.  
"Plasma shot.. on" Luke gurgled. A small mechanism darted out of his wrist band. He pointed it at the assailant, and it automatically fired through his throat.  
"Come on..." Luke said, recovering. "There's probably more on the way."  
But Luke was once again interrupted as a hole was punched through the ceiling of the elevator. Three Chozo dropped through behind Sarius, and each wrapped their tongue around a different part of her body.  
Luke reached for his plasma magnum, but he was too late... a wall of metal fell in front of him, and he was knocked out of the elevator.  
He looked back to where Sarius had been standing... all that was there was rubble. Luke had little time to mourn, because once again he was rushed by the computer.  
"Docking Bay of floor A3 collapsing soon.. please evacuate immediately."  
"Uh oh..." Luke thought to himself. "Time to get out...."  
  
Luke wiped the sweat from his brow, and swore under his breath. He was running out of time. But he swore he could hear muffled voices coming from.. somewhere...  
Luke whirled around to the end of the hall. And there, he saw at least 100 people flowing from every hall in the sector, each one crying for help.  
"Follow me." Luke hollered. "I will help you escape."  
Luke than ran forward, with all of the citizens of sector A3 following him. Luckily, he was not too far from his loading dock, and leaped quickly into his ship, ShadowFax, and then opened up the hatch doors. He watched, partially satisfied that something went right on this suicide mission.   
As soon as the last person boarded, Luke fired up the turbines and took off, leaving a trail of light behind him.  
"Time to get these people back to Charybdis." He thought. "Computer Database ON." He spoke clearly and monotonously. "Take population check on the ship."  
"113 people." The computer reported back.  
"Good... maybe I can afford to get some decent weapons for my ship with the money from this.. then, I can track down Sarius..."  
Luke bowed his head down low. "Oh, Sarius.. I hope you're still alive."  
  
The ShadowFax blazed back toward Charybdis.  
  
Kraid sat comfortably upon his throne of bones, sucking delightfully on a raw animal he had just killed. He motioned for one of his horned-lizard guards to come forward.  
"Yesssssssss master?" The guard responded.  
"Bring me the first prisoner... the origin." Kraid said, hid chin flapping as he spoke. The guard walked off.  
Soon, the horned lizard returned, a wicked spear poked into the back of a reluctant follower. This follower was Houston Barrimonde, bounty hunter and former partner of Samus Aran.  
Houston stood straight up, bravely, despite his weakness. "For what reason have you brought me to this pitiful hovel, Kraid?" He stated, bravely. "Just three days ago, I was captured by a Marshall who looks just like me, and he turns out to be working for you. And just a few days before, I find a girl who looks just like Samus Aran, but isn't. What sort of whitchcraft are you envoking here?"  
Kraid gurgled and laughed. "You must be stupid to not have even developed a theory on this situation yet." He mumbled, making sure to add some spit to the t on yet. "You, my friend, are what I call an origin. Long ago, during the metroid wars, we captured a blood sample of both you and Samus. You see, my friend, we have dropped the idea of using simple, little, instictive minded metroids to strike terror into men. We have turned to the most powerful weapon in the universe, which remained unmastered until now."  
Houston's bravery quickly melted into a zombie-faced fear as he listened to Kraid talk. What he was hearing was beyond his wildest fears... and he feels he knew it the entire time...  
"That's right, Houston." Kraid cackled, a lizard smile sported on his scaly face. "We're messing with DNA... and you're sample number one. We made a clone of you.. and that was your little marshal."  
Houston shivered, as if a great coldness had come over him.  
"And that means eliminating you so your clone can run amuk.. as you... you see, you are our testing ground. With your clone, we can finally see the possibilities to identification takeover." Kraid laughed. "Of course, things only get better. You see, as you probably already know, we have TWO clones. Perhaps it is time to explain this to you... I enjoy it so. BRING ME CLONE #2!!!"  
The horned-lizard guard bowed once again, and troddled off into the hall. He came back, yet another prisoner in front of his menacing weapon.  
"SARIUS!" Houston screamed, looking at his guest.  
  
Sarius looked over to Houston, a desperate look on her face.  
Kraid gurgled, leaning back into his skeletal chair. It looked as if he would collapse in joy.   
"You can't be serious." Houston murmured.  
"Oh, but I am! You see, when Samus gets out and running about again, we'll track her down, and BAM! She's gone. But we'll make sure to keep it a secret. That way, we can sneak in Sarius here.. the Samus clone.. who everyone will think is the REAL Samus. We'll have control over the most influential fighter in the universe! What from there? Presidents? Ambassadors? The possibilities are endless. We have become invinsible!!"  
Houston turned to Kraid, a menacing look across his face. "Just how do you expect Sarius here, who is against the treachery of your race, to just turn sides against everything she has ever known?"  
Kraid laughed again, this time drooling all over his large belly. "That's the beauty of DNA programming! We can add little highlights. Thanks to some pre-planning, we have the ability to brainwash her into an exact opposite of Samus Aran. From an honest do-gooder to a ruthless evil speciman. And that is why we picked the planet of Charybdis for primary target. This was her base of operations, and we knew we could get her here. Sure, this isn't the easiest planet to take over, but with our chozo it is no biggie."  
Finally, Sarius broke her silence. "THE CHOZO! Who are they? These chozo that have attacked us lately are not real chozo... that I know for certain. The real chozo are peace-loving, and it beyond their abilities to fight for any reason other than defense. What demons have you created. They bleed red- not the color of the Chozo blood. They bleed RED!!!"  
Kraid looked as if he was going to start rolling on the floor laughing. "Yes! Yes! True! True! You are wise beyond your few years, Sarius! They are not your ordinary Chozo! They have undergone the same DNA processing you have. The chozo who originally attacked this planet were not normal chozo.. they were HUMAN CHOZO! That's right, Sarius. We made a CHOZO HYBRID! We mixed Chozo DNA with human DNA... took away some intelligence and added some blood-thirst, and look at what we got. Willing soldiers that are ready to kill."  
"That's not all, Kraid." Houston prosecuted. "What about those tongues? That.. new blood sucking ability they have?"  
"To that ability I owe the honor to miss Sarius. You see, it those Chozo were hybrids of Chozo, Humans, and.. metroids! Oh, how beautiful! The most deadly creatures in the universe, and they are under our control. Unlike the Human/Chozo hybrids, which have some intelligence, the Human/Chozo/Metroid hybrids can't even tell left from right, but they are deadly as sin! And thanks to that metroid blood you obtained for us, Sarius, we were able take the DNA of a calm, intelligent red Metraid, and turn it into a bloodthirsty, dim-witted Green Metroid's DNA... thanks to some Gamma Rays."  
Houston turned from horror to smugness again. "Kraid, I don't beleive that you or any of your sergeants are smart enough to come up with such a powerful plan... who is responsible for this, Kraid?"  
This comment really offended Kraid. "Ohhhhhh.. that is something that shall remain unheard to your grave. You don't need to know who's in charge here. All you need to know is this- you are our pawns, and you will do as we please. For now, I'd like you to meet the man who will be in charge of you."   
Kraid snapped his slimy fingers twice, creating more of a repugnent sound than a snap. Then, a tall, broad, almost mechanical looking man entered. He wore a large, yet sleek looking bounty outfit. One of his hands had a glove over it, and the other was obviously robotic. his visor was up, revealing a scarred face and one eye covered up with a patch. He was tightening an attachment on his robotic hand that resembled a tack.  
"This is Captain Carcinogen." Kraid said. "He will be looking over you for awhile."  
  
Luke flared up his engines, watching satisfied as his thrusters boosted up and the ShadowFax rose into the sky.   
"Analyze Weapons System." Luke said, almost proudly.   
"Class A3 ship ShadowFax is carrying: Four wing plasma cannons, two frontboard wave beams, two underbody plasma cannons, six spread ice cannons, and two window bullet cannons."  
Luke smiled, and then looked to the sky. "Set course for Derelict Flagship, ship log #312." He said, losing some of his confidence. "Speed... 15."  
Shadowfax blared off into the sky, at a blinding speed. Within seconds, ShadowFax was orbiting the large flagship.  
"Now... let's see the true speed of ShadowFax.... this one is the real test..."   
Luke reached onto the thrusters, and pulled it down, setting the ship into manual. The ShadowFax whizzed towards the flagship, dodging bullets, lazers, and plasma shots. The speedy ShadowFax went through the onslaught unscathed. Luke used superior flying abilities to fly right up to the ship, and roved around it. Finally, he shot down onto the surface of the ship into a landing dock that just happened to be open.  
"OPEN HATCH." Luke screamed, speaking frantically. He sweat as the hatch slowly opened. He jumped out of the ship and onto to cold steel floor, and looked into his wrist monitor.  
"Okay.. set compass for Allimandus suit R6-66..."  
Luke's sentence was cut off by the arm of a chozo, which gripped about his mouth mercilessly. He struggled, but he stopped when he felt something poke into his back. All went black in the world of Luke Allimandus...  
  
When Luke came to, he examined his surroundings. Mold had began to grow in the corners of the rusted cell. He was obviously being held captive. And, almost like clockwork, a man walked in when he awoke.  
The figure who entered was large, wearing a battle-suit. His face was scarred, and he wore one eye patch. He had a gloved hand, and a mechanical hand.  
"Hello, there." He said with an english accent. "I'm Captain Carcinogen, head of the prison board."  
"Prison Board?" Luke said, dazed. "Where am I?"  
"You are on board the ship Infection. This is the Flag Ship of admiral Kraid. You are a prisoner on board."  
"Prisoner? You mean... you haven't killed me yet."  
"What do you think, fool?" The voice of the captain was surprisingly kind, but very sarcastic.  
"Why... why not?"  
"Because... while you may take us for blood thirsty savages, my fair Allimandus, we are actually very honorable.. despite our violent rages. We make sentences here by a certain rule. You will battle.. in the arena."  
"Arena..?"  
"Yes. It is a battle between two prisoners for the prize of life. You are both contained in a small chamber about fifty feet around. We place one flame-thrower in the room and.. boom.. winner gets to go free. Loser... well, lets just say his ashes will have a special place."  
"When.. do I fight."  
A buzzer went off in the prison hall.  
"Right now, Luke. Come with me."  
Luke was dragged up, gruggled. He walked after the Captain, and was woken up by the stench of the room he was thrown into.   
He looked around- This room was OLD! THe room was cone shaped, and there were hundreds of spectators behind mesh fences. One lonely light hung from above, and a small platform jutted out from the center of the room.  
A voice spoke from nowhere... "WELCOME PRISON BATTLE NUMBER FOURTY SIX THOUSAND! OUR COMBATANTS TODAY.. A TALL SIX FOOT HUMAN MALE, A TOP RANKING ENGINEER, HERE UNDER THE CHARGE OF TRESPASSING, LUKE ALLIMANDUS!!!!"  
The crowed cheered... Luke took little comfort in this.  
"AND, A FAMED BOUNTY HUNTER, ALL THE WAY FROM LANDS UNKNOWN, A MENACING 6 FEET 5 INCHES... HERE UNDER CHARGES OF AGGRESSION TOWARDS THE EMPIRE... HOUSTON BARRIMONDE!!!!"   
The crows cheered again, as the door opposite of Luke opened. Luke's old friend, Houston, walked out, a befuddled look on his face.   
"COMBATANTS, ARE YOU READY?!?!"  
Houston and Luke just looked at each other in total horror. As they gazed, a chain slowly dropped a flame thrower on the platform in the center of the room.  
"FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!"  
Luke raised his dazed eyes across the room, looking his former colleague up and down. He did the same. Both were weary, obviously from whatever drug the warriors had put in them. Just seconds ago the announcer had given them the signal to fight.. but the two reluctant battlers just looked at each other, as if in a waking dream.  
Suddenly, the arena shook with a booming voice. It was Kraid, who was watching from a large room above the arena. "FOOOOOLS! IF YOU FAIL TO ENTERTAIN ME, I SHALL KILL YOU BOTH!"  
Luke and Houston still stood, their feet planted, a good forty yards between them.  
Kraid's repugnent voice boomed through again. "ALL RIGHT! YOU DO NOT WISH TO FIGHT! THAT IS CLEAR!" Suddenly, his voice came to a low whisper, it's sound clear and menacing. "Then, you will serve as lab rats to our new hormone.. you see, we have injected you with a little more than a sleeping drug.. you are under the influence of a brainwash drug... but not just any brainwash drug.. an involuntary rage drug. When I call your names, you shall both become as wild as these Chozo, and you shall become drunk in your own rage. You will strike upon each other without clear mind... and it seems to be the only way to get some fun and games out of you two. Soooo..."  
Luke and Houston suddenly became awake, realizing they were soon about to lose all thought.....  
Kraid spoke again. "LUKE! HOUSTON! BATTLE NOW!"  
Suddenly, both Luke and Houston felt their bodies swell up... they felt their minds cloud... the normal colors of the prism seemed to vanish... all they could see was violent flashes of red and black. The cheers of the crowd seemed to turn into laughter... their knuckles became tight with anger... their eyes seemed to change to large black holes, sucking up all light around them. Then.. they charged.  
The crowd cheered with approvement. The two lunged at each other's throats.. but both were covered with their heavy armor. So they struggled with each other's armor, thinking it could do some good. They then stood up, and tried to manhandle each other onto the floor. At this Luke was amiss, for Houston was a hard-trained bounty hunter much stronger than he. Houston easily threw Luke to the ground, and he slid across into one of the hard metal walls, his thin helmet offering little protection.  
Houston attacked Luke while he was slowly recovering from the blow, and threw him again towards the center of the arena... the flame thrower. When Luke set eyes on it, he was still to dizzy to react. But, as Houston got ready to assail him again, Luke quickly grabbed the flame thrower and backed away. He pointed a straight towards Houston... then released a douse of mighty flames, which violently threw themselves onto Houston and throttled him into the air and against the back wall. When Luke turned the flame back off, he was astonished to see Houston rise again.  
Luke's mind now started to slow down. What ever devil medicine he had been fed, he was recovering from it. And he could tell Houston was too, as he weakly trodded towards Luke, his scorched suit and face mournfully approaching the confused Luke.  
Luke pushed all of his other thoughts aside, and slowly rose to meet Houston.   
He spoke to him in a low whisper. "Are you recovering friend."  
Houston's charred eyebrows slowly lifted to look at his colleague. "I still feel the urge to strike you." his bloodly lips mouthed. "But I can now think for myself."  
"You are in no condition to fight me.. you may die soon without treatment...."  
"I feel no pain.. I feel nothing..."  
The voice of Kraid boomed through the arena once more. "FINISH HIM, YOUNG WARRIOR! HIS CHARRED BODY IS NEAR ITS END! FINISH HIM!"  
Luke looked cautiously towards the door he was forced to enter into the arena. "I may know a way out..."  
"How?" Houston's bloody lips now struggled to speak.  
"Just trust me.."  
Luke used his shoulder to lift Houston and carry him over his back.  
"FINISH HIM!" Kraid boomed. "FINISH HIM AT LAST!"  
  
In a moment of complete surprise, Luke raised his Flame Thrower up, towards the sky. He took careful aim for the ancient light bulb, swinging from the ceiling.  
"Goodbye, wretched creatures." Luke hollered. "And thank you for your sensitive eyes.  
Luke flipped his visor down on his helmet with his free hand, and then pulled the trigger of the flame thrower, releasing a stream of deadly flames up and towards the swinging light, sending the entire bulb on fire. As he did this, the quite fresh magnesium in the bulb flared into a bright light, blinding all those in the room without optical shading.. including every entire pesky little horned lizard and chozo bird in the room.  
As the room lit up in light, Luke darted out the door as fast as he could with the massive Houston thrown over his shoulder. He charged up the stairs just to the right of his former prison cell, and found himself in familiar territory... he looked to his left and saw a hall leading right to the landing hatch where he had stored ShadowFax. Apparantly, his landing was not a very long time ago, and they must have just drug him down from where they captured him for immediate battle.  
He ran towards his ship, a small party of Chozo birds now taking haste to him.   
"Open hatch.. now!" He screamed, approaching the ShadowFax.  
The hatch slowly opened, eating up Luke's time as the Chozo were still hot on his trail.  
As it opened, he leaped in and lightly threw Houston on the reception couch.  
"CLOSE HATCH! CLOSE IT!" Luke watched anxiously as the hatch started to close, the Chozo birds running quickly towards it.  
One Chozo leader had been running a good fifty yards ahead of his teammates, and was now next to the ShadowFax. He jumped into the hatch and lunged for Luke throat, his tongue flicking in and out of his beak. Luke was overpowered by the massive bird, and fell to the ground as its tongue flipped his visor open, exposing his face. His tongue started to approach between his eyes...  
Just like clockwork, Houston came to with a mighty kick that sent the bird flying into the closing hatch. There was not enough time for the bird to get out of the doorway, so the door slammed upon him, crushing his bones and separating him into two pieces, his legs landing inside the ship.  
"Ugh!" Luke said, covering his mouth in disgust.  
Now, Luke heard the sound of Chozo birds beating against the hull of his ship.  
"Autopilot on.. take off!" Luke exclaimed. ShadowFax obeyed the orders excellently, and took off into the sky.  
Luke picked up Houston and carried him into the bridge. "Let us go away from this smelly foot. I do not like looking at it, and it scares me yet. Besides, I must give you some aid... for what I have done to you."  
"Thank you...." Houston muttered weakly as they entered the bridge. "Do not hold it against yourself.. and as soon as I can speak, I have quite the story to tell you.. I have discovered the plan of the Chozo... and I know of our next destination."  
The bridge door closed behind them.. and the feet of the Chozo bird lay on the floor.. rotting...  
  
Luke let out a deep sigh of relief as he watched the Kraid's Flagship sail off into the distance. He then turned his attention to his singed friend.  
"Houston... Houston? You okay, man? You still awake?"  
"Just barely..."  
"That's a relief. I wasn't sure your old body would sustain that fire...."  
"OLD? HOW DARE YOU CALL ME OLD?!?!" Houston suddenly burst out.  
"WELL, YOU ARE ANCIENT OLD MAN!!!" Luke screamed back... the two now stared at each other fiercely...  
Luke slowly gained his breath back. "Houston.. my friend.. the drug of the horned-lizard's has effected us both greatly, and I fear we are still quite drunk in rage. We must make extra effort to control ourselves, or we will destory each other."  
Luke slowly pried the helmet off of Houston. When he was finished, he could clearly see the marks where the flames had hit him. The deep burns in his face traced where his helmet visor was open. One of his eyes was shut, its eyelashes charred off. The other was faintly open, but the eye within appeared healthy.  
Luke took a little bottle of Bilithimic from his first aid case and smeared it gently on the face of Houston. "This will help regenerate your lost skin.. there will be some deep scars on your brow and left cheek, but the rest of you will return to a healthy look.... now, about that story."  
Houston slowly sat up from his couch, and looked at Luke mournfully. "They are genetical masters." He moaned.  
"Genetical masters? What say?"  
"The have become masters in the art of DNA designing. The Chozo you saw are not normal.. they are hybrids of Humans.. and the more violent ones of humans and metroids... and I have no doubt that the hormone that Kraid injected into us is making those creatures all the more deadly. Also, they have learned to clone DNA.. I have a clone... and our old friend Sarius, was indeed a clone."  
Luke's eyes lit up with horror as he heard his friend speak. "What of Sarius? I would like to hear more of what you know of her, though I fear it... is she alive?"  
"Very much so." Houston Muttered. "She is a clone of Samus Aran. And she is in danger of being brainwashed.. much in the same manner we were, except permanently. Their plan is to have their clones take the place of key individuals through the universe.. and then using them to create total havoc, to their favor."  
"Has she been brainwashed yet.. I mean.. is the Sarius we knew still there...?"  
"I don't doubt it. In order for them to use Sarius to her full extent, they would need to elimanate Samus Aran.. and she has not been heard of since the primary attack. But taking her down will be no easy task.. a woman who single-handedly nearly wiped out an entire species is not going to be an easy target.. but.."  
"But what?"  
"But I fear she's a goner, if she ever does show up. These Chozo they are creating are becoming more violent every time they come out with a new model. From what I've seen, about five of those at one time would overmatch Samus Aran..."  
"Then we must go fetch Sarius... before she is driven from her mind!"  
"No! That would not be a good idea. We have worn out our welcome already. From now on, Luke, the clock is ticking. We have to drive the movement of.. them.. to a hault before Samus is hunted down... or else the entire universe is lost. And we're going to be targets from now on, no doubt."  
"How can we, two people, stop an entire army of blood-hungry humanoids and an unknown criminal mastermind?"  
"We can't.. but if every power in this universe could help..."  
"We may have a better chance than now."  
"Correct. When we return to Rogell, I will go to every guild and address them on the situation. Then, we will see what really lies in the hearts of the warrior.."  
"Agreed... I will repair the ShadowFax. Come to me when you are done, and we shall patiently wait for the beckoning of young warriors, ready to free the galaxy.."  
  
A middle-aged man clothed in a large and singed battlesuit, primarily the color blue, walks to the center of the guild. He lifts his visor, revealing his charred face.  
"Greetings, friends. I am Houston Barrimonde. For those of you who listen to stories often, I am the former partner of Samus Aran. I was the one that battled along side her against the last threat of the Metroids two years ago. I come to you today in relation to the recent events which have turned the entire Messina system upside down.  
Indeed, I am talking about the True Chozo. I recognize many faces in here, and know that many of you have had encounters against them. As have I. And I bring back important news about the Chozo, which I feel is important for everyone to know.  
First of all, the Chozo are not Chozo. As many travellers among you may recall, Chozo are very peaceful and are rarely warlike, if only to save their homelands. The chozos many of you have encountered are hybrids between humans and chozos, with an added hormone which makes them blindly warlike. These Chozo are generally intelligent, although they are stupid in comparison to real chozo. Some of the more recent breeds are hybrids of Chozos, humans, and reconstructed metroids. These metroids were evolutionized from metraids, generally peaceful and intelligent creatures much like red metroids.  
As you may have guessed, there is no way that these Chozo could be in charge of themselves. They are driven like pawns behind a greater force. I have no idea what this greater force is, though I've met some of the staff of the alliance to take the earth. Kraid, known far and wide as head space pirate, has been a major nuisance to Space Station Nextima. But, he is certainly not smart enough to be in charge. I've heard stories of Ridley, who some say was destroyed already. But I doubt either of these were in charge.. so guess what. We have a long way to go.  
An even more dangerous aspect of these creatures is the technology they represent. Not only can they create hybrids of species, they can also clone people, and replace their thoughts. This has been done twice to my knowledge. I have a clone now, who is working as a false marshall. And, Samus Aran has a clone. Somehow, her clone escaped after being created.. her name is Sarius Dallas. So far, she is willingly active against the Chozo and their leaders. But, she was recently captured, and I fear they will brainwash her. Once doing so, they could eliminate Samus Aran, and replace her with their clone, giving them power from the backseat. If this becomes a trend, I see presidents, ambassadors, and even military leaders falling prey to the same treatment. We must nip this problem from the stem.  
And that is why I have come here today. I have watched the VidNews often, and know that many of you have been out for your own personal reasons, battling the Chozo. Now, I ask you a favor. No longer are we separate in this. The only way we can beat the Chozo is by banding together, forming a union, and planning a step ahead of them. I ask you today to join a rebellion. We must collect enough knowledge so that we know everything about the enemy.. then we can fight it. Me and my partner, Luke Allimandus, will be awaiting mail from you giving us facts about the True Chozo we have not yet received. Then, state your purpose. We will enlist you in the rebellion. There are few strings attached to this engagement, besides giving your information to all the rebellion, (I will send you a list of all member when you join me.) and helping to crush everything to do with the Chozo movement. United we stand. Divided we fall. Be you rich, poor, strong, fast, we don't care. As long as you have more to contribute to the rebellion than just words. When you register, we will give you a background check and see to it that you are a worthy warrior, and not some cheezy two bit slacker who just likes to kill things without thinking. There will be no real leader. I will simply except mail first."  
  
Luke rose from his comfortable Inn room slowly, and basked in the glow of the distant Charybdis sun. Indeed, it was anything but peaceful out there, but this is the best he had felt since before the war.  
  
Houston was already up, and was interfaced with the Universal Web Terminal located in their room. He appeared to be quite busy.   
  
Luke sauntered over to his partner. "What are you up to?"  
"Our day of vacation is over, Luke." Houston said, his eyes glued to the interface screen. "I have some important information to share with you that will set us off on our next mission. And, I have some registrations for the rebellion."  
Luke sat down on his bed, running his face through his fingers trying to arouse himself. "Okay. What's to hear?"  
Houston turned from the interface to face Luke. "When I was on board Kraid's flagship, I obained some information."  
"How so?"  
"You remember old Captain Carcinogen, right?"  
"Yeah, so?"  
"Well, he was partially cyborg. In fact, I beleive he may have one time been a human, and he was a genetic experiment... he was no doubt brainwashed. But, to assure his honesty and faithfullness, they had a drive installed in his nervous system that kept track of orders. I discovered this while I was talking to Kraid. When the Captain entered, I secretly interfaced with him using some remote capabilities in my suit. Being partially human, I don't think he felt a thing. I obtained all the stats on his most recent mission."  
Luke perked to awareness, apparantly more interested now. "So... what is it?"  
"Well..." Houston paused quickly, than continued. "Whoever is in charge of the True Chozo is looking to set up a base on Charybdis, giving them a direct link to all of Charybdis, and allowing them to continue cloning at a local rate."  
"How is that possible? There is no way for the True Chozo to set up a base on Charybdis. Looking at how long we've been battling them, there's no way they can just stroll unto the planet and take over some land without being fought full force."  
"Yes.. unless they went to someplace that would never be expected."  
"How? Every livable place on Charybdis is being guarded..."  
"Exactly... what if they used an UNLIVABLE place?"  
"What? There is no such place on Charybdis that would be suitable for anything to live, let alone delicate Cloning equipment."  
"Tell me, Luke. Have you ever heard of Deceburs?"  
"Ummm.. yes. A reluctant species with characteristics like scaly humans... three fingers, one thumb, two hands, two feet, webbed, green or purple, no taller than four feet, eyes on side of head, tentacles emitted from their shoulders for sound sensory, horns... shy... what about them?"  
"Well... where do they live?"  
"In large underwater cities, enclosed in synthetics and plexiglass.. they enjoy looking out into the ocean..."  
"Right... lets say that the True Chozo eliminate their only city, Dalus, and take it over... then...."  
Luke jumped in, realizing the intensity of the conversation. "Placed their genetic machines in there!"  
"Indeed. That one station here on Charybdis would be enough to cause the very collapse of our rebellion effort."  
Luke swallowed hard. "And, since we are the few people who know..."  
"We have to stop them... but not alone! Indeed, the government may be in shambles, and defenseless to help anything but their prime target-- the skies. But my call for the rebellion did not go unanswered. I spent the entire morning reading nearly a hundred requests from guilds all over the Charybdis...."  
"And..."  
"And most of them were heavy-headed, no-braining, glory-seeking, muddle-lovers. Very few had any martial training, and even fewer had done anything besides live here. We need true warriors.. I don't want to go dragging innocent citizens into the ocean."  
"So.. how many entrants do we have?"  
"Three... they have been in a party together for quite some time... and they had very valuable information for us."   
"So... who are they?" Luke asked, brow sweating in anticipation.  
Houston scratched the side of his neck, taking little notice to Luke's excitedness. "Their names are Burolis, Sybern, and Manta. They sure are an interesting bunch- Sybern is a human crossbred with a chozo, much the same as Samus, except not as heavily. Burolis a chozo... a rare pure-blood fighting chozo, who is fighting for her homeland. And Manta... this one is the most interesting.. was one of the test drive metroid/chozo crosses. It was a rabble and deformed creature, so the True Chozo put it away in a cage. Apparantly it was too intelligent and too unpredictable.. as well as too unstable.. to be used as a warrior. But it appears that Sybern and Burolis saved it out of natural compassion..."  
"Houston?"  
"What?"  
"As a question off the record of our new suicidal mission... just what do you think will really become of Sarius."  
"You really care for the girl, don't you, Luke?"  
"Well, I pity her. I mean, here she is, forced to spend her life prior to this in the slums of Charybdis. And now.. she learns that she is nothing more than a clone.. a made up pawn used as a tool by evil. She must feel worthless... and for that I pity her, and feel compassion towards her to no end... if it was possible to leave Dalus in your hands alone, I would ride ShadowFax into certain doom towards that FlagShip one more time just to see her.. and to comfort her in her hour of despair.."  
"But your comfort won't do much good when you get your life sucked away by a metroid-chozo."  
Luke looked desperately towards his feet.  
"Don't feel bad, matey." Houston said with a comforting smile. "We'll get her out before they wash her... when our resistance gets to a suitable size, we'll fly right into Kraid's mothership and steal her back. But, we must concentrate on the great battles of war first... mainly, Dalus. We must depart immediately. Throw on your battlesuit now, boy, because we have some serious beak to fry."  
With that, the two warriors sped from their spots and began to prepare for what may be their final day...  
Luke let out a great huff as he dropped the final load of supplies in the cargo hold of the ShadowFax. He then returned to the bridge to meet with his fellow comrade, Houston Barrimonde, who was now resting. He plopped down in the driver's seat and turned to his comrade.   
"Well, Houston. I haven't had the chance to ask you. What do you think of my proudest posession?" Luke stretched his arms wide to his sides, indicating he was talking about his ship.  
Houston turned to his teabeer with a smile. "This ship is really something else, Luke. I don't know how you managed to make such a powerful ship as a commoner."  
"What can I say? My father was probably the greatest engineer of his day! While I can't live up to his reputation in today's overcrowded market, I can't deny that alot of his talent rubbed off." Luke ran his fingers across the dash. "I started building this ship six years ago.. when I was only thirteen.. now look at it.. the fastest ship known to man. Not only that, but is well armed, too."  
Houston laughed a hearty laugh-- his first one for weeks. "Indeed, Luke, you show your fondness for the ship. But, twice now, you have risked it for the sake of Sarius and I. And for that, I can offer nothing but my undying gratitude."  
Luke shrugged. "I still don't know if that was a wise idea. I'm starting to think I should leave this ship alone. If it gets into the wrong hands... I should just use my fathers old GreatWing."  
"Now, now, now." Houston shook his head. "You sound like a man with a new expensive hovercraft- those people who look in there model X hovercrafts and never use them, just so they won't hurt them. Without this ship, I doubt we'd be taking off for another mission today."  
"I guess you're right."   
"I know I'm right."  
"Well, should we take off... there are chores to be done."  
Houston nodded.  
"Ship on. Computer on. Weapon systems on level one. Back Thrusters on. Nuclear level 2. Gossamer mode." Luke barked his orders with confidence.  
"Computer error." The computer said. "Nuclear shielding off. Commencing nuclear nutraliziation. Evacuate ship immediately- self-implosion will take place in three minutes. Radiation levels will rise."  
Luke looked over at Houston with a horrified face. "We need to get out! The ship's nuclear fuel system has failed!"  
Houston darted for the emergency hatch, and lunged his body towards it, trying to open it.   
"Emergency Locks activated- No entrance to the ship."  
Luke scrambled to the control panel. "CANCEL! CANCEL! Activate emergency cancellation!"  
"Not accepted- Bypassed." The computer barked back, calmly. "Condition- Dangerous. Computer error IO69."  
Houston whirled around to Luke. "IO69? That is not a computer error! That's a viral error!"  
Luke stiffened in shock as he realized something had been stuck in his computer, and it was about to cause him to be zapped with twenty pounds worth of Nuclear Fusion. "What could have done it?"  
Houston started looking around outside the bridge. "Where's the leg? The leg of that Chozo we shut the hatch on?"  
Houston was answered by a rude shake and attack- a tongue shot out from the door to engineering, and twirled around his neck.  
Houston struggled with the tongue, gargling as he watch Luke panic in horror.   
Luke searched his battle suit up and down, as if he expected some mechanism to automatically cover your friend's life force getting sucked out by a Chozoid. In horror and reaction, he whipped out his lazer and fired at the tongue, and was half releived to see it split and the portion around Houston grow limp. He listened and heard the chozo bird squeel, and then disappear.  
"What's going on?" Houston cried, regaining his breath.  
"The Chozoid.. must be able to regenerate.... at an incredible rate..."  
"But one leg becoming an entire chozo? Unreal!"  
Luke once again sported his now famaliar face of horror.   
"What? What is it?"  
"There were two legs." Luke whispered. "We're being attacked by two really ticked off chozoids."  
"They must be in engineering."  
The computer's monotonous voice rang out once again. "Nuclear Implosion will commence in two minutes. Evacuate immediately."  
Luke looked towards the engineering door. "We need to get in there... and find the virus... and get rid of it, and the chozoids."  
They both rushed into the engineering sector, in quite a frantic state. They had their lazers drawn and were pointing at random. Suddenly, a squeel cried out from behind the nuclear reactor. Houston turned and prepared to fire. Luke smacked his hand and caused him to shoot the ceiling.  
"What are you doing?" Houston hollered.  
"DON'T SHOOT THE NUCLEAR REACTOR! We'll be sent straight to Hades!"  
Just then, a creature appeared from the shadows and locked his arms around Luke's neck. He began squeezing harshly, and he wrapped his tongue around his eyes. Luke reacted swiftly, and pulled a manual switch on his costume, putting a small vial into his hand from a chute in the wrist channel. He shoved it into the eye of the Chozo, and backed off quickly as it shrieked in horror, it's face hissing and smoking.  
"What did you do?" Houston asked in amazement.  
"I split a vial of highly concentrated Holi-Plastic Acid on him. It's deathly lethal to organic materials..."  
Luke watched in disgust, unable to move his eyes as the bird's face dissolved off, revealing a mutalated skeleton.  
"15 seconds to Nuclear Implosion."  
Suddenly, Luke's mind came to a staggering speed.  
"Release Lead Gas.." He said. "Put your visor down, and turn on your artificial oxygen." Luke whispered to Houston. He did as told.. a thick black gas emitted from the valves.   
"OPEN NUCLEAR REACTOR!" Luke screeched, making sure to be heard over the great hissing. The nuclear Reactor's shell lowered, revealing it's large, glowing Uranium deposit.  
Just then, the other Chozo with it's tongue cut off leaped from the shadows and gripped onto Houston.  
"SHOVE IT IN THE REACTOR!" Luke screeched.  
Houston reacted with barely a thought's time. He hurtled the creature into the reactor, and it slowed to a sqiurming halt as he hit the Uranium deposit.  
"CLOSE REACTOR! NOW!" Luke said, thinking his hasty words would hasten the computer's actions.  
The reactor closed, and the bird could be seen floating in the reactor.  
"Nuclear Reactor Neutralized." The computer chirped. "All systems back to normal."  
Houston and Luke fell to the floor, exhausted. After a few minutes of silent rest, Houston turned to Luke. "Well.. what now.. we have lost our fuel."  
"Well, first we need to go to the nearest Lava Pore and dispose of these bodies.. where they can't regenerate. We'll get there using auxillary power.. it's good for about four or five hundred miles. Then, our Uranium should deneutralize, and we can finally head for Dalus."  
Houston nodded, and they returned to the ship...  
  
The Chozo-Human-Metroid Hybrid still lay in the nuclear reactor...  
  
Unfortunate to Luke and Houston, they did not know the effects Gamma Rays had on Metroids.. even in their hybrid form....  
  
In the silent confineries of the engineering room, the Chozo bird started to pulsate.. and awaken.  
  
*** The following are the first posts done by a fellow named JGiannanto ***  
The Story of JGiannanto  
  
Sybern has just left his underground home with nothing up his clothes. As he walks away there is an explosion.  
  
Sybern-The bomb worked.  
  
He keeps walkign and soon he is in a forest.  
  
Sybern-::Thinking to himself:: I gotta find a ship and weapons. Good thing I was cross bred with the chozo.My hightened instincts should help me out..  
  
Suddenly Sybern heres a noise  
  
Sybern-Who's that?  
  
Two men in suits walk out.There faces covered.  
  
Man1-In the name of the true Chozo!  
  
They charge Sybern.He leaps into the air and dodges them.  
  
Man2-::Whipping out a small phaser.He fires it quickly nailing Sybern on his arm::  
  
Sybern-::Leaping into the air he lands on the back of one of the men and steal his phaser.The man's mask comes off.  
  
Man2-Nooooooo!  
  
Sybern-Your a Chozo?But.........red?  
  
The large bird was red.Sybern aims the gun and fires two shots into the birds back.The other bird is gone in a flash.  
  
Sybern-They must have a ship around here! Finally after searching through some underbrush he finds the ship.:: There technology IS advanced.I think I can crack it though.  
  
After a few minutes Sybern gets the ship running  
  
Sybern-Now to The Bounty hunters guild to get some equipment.!  
  
(On his journeys, Sybern finds a derelict Chozo Ship. Just how he found this is not recorded in the main folders.)  
  
Sybern is wandering around the ship.  
  
Sybern-This technology is great! The sheilds read off the scale,they have 2 frontal phaser cannons,2 frontal torpedo cannons,an atma launcher.Whatever that is.They have cloaking and stealth capabilities.Only problem is when cloaked it is weak and the rear is extremely weak.And this thing eats so much fuel its not funny!  
  
Voice-Greetings.  
  
Sybern-Wha?  
  
Voice-I am space unit em-63.Otherwise known as Cho .  
I am here to here hlep you.  
  
Sybern-Who created you?  
  
Cho-I am a cfeation of the Chozo and Imidia.  
  
Sybern-Imidia?  
  
Cho-A human like race with three eyes.There intelligence is heightened.  
  
Sybern-Are you the newest model?  
  
Cho-I am one of the older models.  
  
Sybern-Older?!  
  
Cho-Yes.The newer models are much more advanced than me.  
  
Sybern-Problem.Well anyway.Take me toThe Bounty Hunter's Guild maximum storage shed.  
  
Cho-Hyper boosters?  
  
Sybern-Um okay.  
  
Cho-Speed detinators?  
  
Sybern-What?  
  
Cho-When speed detinators and hyper boosters combine they create a massive blast of speed.Only problem is it takes much fuel.  
  
Sybern-Do it anyway.  
  
In seconds they arrive at the storage shed  
  
Cho-It is heavily guarded.  
  
Sybern-Set torpedo's to 50 % and fire at sectors 8,9,10,and 7. Send phaser blasts to back them up.And send a atma torpedo in the middle.  
  
the blasts go off and alarms can be heard.Suddenly a huge blasts goes off.  
  
Cho-Immediate evacuation! ATma bomb has n=been detonated.  
  
Sybern-Why?  
  
Cho-Its power is unlmitied! It will destroy this place!  
  
Sybern-Transport me to maximum storage.Directly to the panzer suit.  
  
Cho-Sure?  
  
Sybern-Yes.  
  
In seconds Sybnern appears in a very chaotic area.He walks up tot he panzer suit,which floats in a glass tube.He breaks the glass and grabs the suit.  
  
Sybern-Equip.  
  
Voice-Panzer Helm-Heat tracker,Infra red, and other tracking tech.  
Gloves-Heat resistent.  
Body suit-unbreakable,absorbable.  
Leggings-Steel mesh.Lightweight  
Boots-increase speed and minimal flight.  
  
Sybern-Now the weapons.  
  
Sybern walks to a glass case and punches it.  
  
Sybern-Equip.  
  
Voice-Quick shot-Able to fire 10 quick weak blasts.  
Giga Shot-Extra strong blast.Slow recharge  
Phaser-Strong.3 settings.Weak death and grapple.  
  
Sybern-Cho! Pick me up!  
  
The roof of the maximum security building explodes and a ;adder falls down.Sybern grabs it and gets into Cho.  
  
Sybern-Set course for Windin Mountains.We need to refule.  
  
Windia Mountains.  
  
Sybern-Cho.Locate the nearest refuel stop that is neutral. Land there.  
  
Cho-Yes sir.  
  
Soon Sybern lands near a refeul stop.  
  
Gas Jockey-Filler up for ya mate?  
  
Sybern-Yeah::Flips the Jockey a coin:: and send me some gallons of gas.  
  
Sybern walks to the edges of the mountains when he hears a large whirring sound.Suddenly a large ship appears.Suddenly two more appear.Millions of flashes go by and scroch the woods.Few hit Sybern.He begins to run back to his ship but is nailed in the leg very badly.  
  
Sybern-Cho.......pick...me...up!  
  
Cho-Sir!  
  
Gas-Jockey-Whas goin on?  
  
Cho-Beaming up!  
  
Sybern appears in Cho.  
  
Sybern-Evasive action! Take us to Space station Nextima.  
  
Cho starts to fly but is hit numerous times in the side.  
  
Sybern-Sheilds up to 100% Load torpedos at 75% and get e=me an ATma missle online and ready.  
  
Cho-Yes sir.  
  
Sybern-When we get out of the atmosphere fir the Atma Missle at the leader.  
  
Cho-Leaving Charybdis atmosphere.....firing atam missle......now!  
  
The middle Ship explodes and knockes the others out of formation.  
  
Sybern-Fire torpedo's and 5 [haser shots!Then cloak us!   
  
Cho does as told and destroys another ship.  
  
Cho-We are cloaked.  
  
Suddenly the ships is rocked.  
  
Cho-Shields failing! Weapons going offline!  
  
Sybern-Translate all power to sheilds.Speed Detonaters and Hyper boosters on my mark........mark!  
  
The ships sppeds away from the shocked Chozian ship.  
  
Cho-Entering Nextima airspace.Wait! There under attack!  
  
Sybern-Bring us around and prepare for battle.  
  
Nextima  
  
Cho-Hold on sir.It appears that Nextima is not under attack.Its just recovering.There ARE some Chozo ships circling.If we take them down we might be able to radio in some EMT's.  
  
Sybern-They are flying close together.They must be weak.Fire an ATma missle.  
  
Cho-Cannot perfrom.ATma missles still reforming.  
  
Sybern-Great.Cloak us. Fly by and fire some torpedo's at 100% and fire all phasers.  
  
Cho does as told and two of the ships explode.3 are left and they try and follow the Cho.  
  
Sybern-Uncloak and make a u-turn and fly in opposite direction.  
  
The ship whizzes past the Chozo ships.  
  
Sybern-Follow them.Lock all weapons on the middle one.And........fire!  
  
Two of the ships explode but the final one escapes.  
  
Sybern-Land on the space station.Pick up as many passengers as possible.  
  
The ship docks at the space station.One figure stumbles out.A chozo with white feathers.  
  
Chozo-Please.My family is dead.Help me..........  
  
Cho-Sir. There are hardly any living on board.Most have been taken by other ships.  
  
Sybern-::Picks up the hurt Chozo::Lets go.Cho.Take us back to Charybdis Air space.  
  
Space(the final frontier:) )  
  
  
Sybern-I am real sorry.I am bad with Chozo stuff.Are you male or female?  
  
Chozo-Female.My name is Burolis Magnis.  
  
Sybern-Hello Burolis. I am Sybern.And this is my ship Cho.  
  
Burolis-Hello.  
  
Sybern-What happened back there?  
  
Burolis-Some dark Chozo attacked us.I was on guard when it happened.They destroyed my whole sector.::gets up:: Where did you put my equipment?  
  
Sybern-Over there::Points to a corner::  
  
Burolis-Equip.  
  
Voice-Chozo War armor equipped!  
Chozo War Hammer Equipped!  
Chozo Com-Pack equipped!  
  
Burolis-This is my Com-Pack.Say hello to Sybern Ellis!  
  
Ellis-Hello sir Sybern.  
  
Burolis-::Taking Ellis off her arm::Why don't you interface with Cho::Plugs into Cho::  
  
Sybern-Cho.Take us to the city of Mascala.  
  
Cho-Yes sir.  
  
Sybern-Lets get some sleep.  
  
Mascala.  
  
Burolis and Sybern are outside the domed city.Two True Chozo's guard the only door in.  
  
Burolis-What is this place?  
  
Sybern-It WAS a city.  
  
Burolis-Think we can take out those guards?  
  
Ellis-There is a 1 100 chance that they wills succed in besting you in battle lady Burolis.But this barbaric human....well thats another story.  
  
Sybern-Ellis....Shut up!Just have Cho circle the building.  
  
Burolis-Sybern-You go to the left.I got the right.  
  
Sybern-::Pulling out giga shot:: Begin load.  
  
Voice-Loading Giga Shot.Approximate loading time 5 minutes.  
  
Sybern-::Putting away Giga Shot and getting Phaser:: Setting grapple.  
  
Sybern circles to the left and Burolis to the right.Suddenly Burolis springs from around the dome and hits the True Chozo in the back of the head with her war hammer.  
  
True Chozo1-Hey!::Pulls out a sowrd and laser:: WHo did that?  
  
Sybern releases a grappling beam to a tree and swings to hit th e true chozo in the back of the head.  
  
True Chozo2-Infidels!  
  
Sybern-Fire1! ::A shot fires from Sybern phaser stunning the chozo.::  
  
Voice-Giga Shot loaded!  
  
Burolis points her hammer at one of the true chozos and a bolt leaps off it and hits him.  
  
Sybern-Fire giga shot at coordinates 5-5!  
  
A explosion leaps out of the guun rocking Sybern.It hits the True Chozo battering his body.In secodns the Chozo body explodes with the wall.  
  
Chozo1-Uh oh!::Starts to fly away::  
  
Burolis-WHere are you going?::Whacks the Chozo on his back.He lands on the grounf with a splat. Green blood oozes from his body.  
  
Burolis-Ellis!Sampler tubes.  
  
Two tubes pop out of Ellis.Burolis scoops up two viles of Chozo blood.  
  
Sybern-A hobbie of yours?  
  
Burolis-We might need it.  
  
Sybern-Uh oh! I here an alarm!  
  
Burolis-Lets just check out the inside.  
  
The two walk into the dome and discover it is a breeding lab.  
  
Burolis-They are breeding more of these true chozo!And look at the errored experiments!::Burolis stares at the cages lining the walls with many deformed things::  
  
Sybern-Look at that!  
  
They both stare into something that is too scary too believe.A chozo,black,with a clear chest and legs.In side them are a rasberry like substance and some green gels.  
  
Burolis-Its insides.....its a chozo metroid mix!  
  
SYbern-We gotta free it.  
  
Burolis-How?Besides it might kill us!  
  
Sybern-Give me one of those viles.::Grabs true Chozo blood and shoves it into a small compartment::  
  
Computer Voice-DNA accepted!  
  
The cylnider holding the creature in fades and it lands in Syberns arms.  
  
Sybern-Is it male or female?  
  
Burolis-Looks like a male  
  
Sybern-Ellis get Cho to pick us up.  
  
As Sybern and Burolis leave Burolis turns and fires a strong blast from her hammer that lets loose all of the misguided experiments.  
  
Cho-Hurry sir!  
  
Sybern-CHo! Transport us on board!  
  
Cho-Yes sir!  
  
In seconds the three are onboard and the strange creature is lying on a bed.  
  
Sybern-Cho.Take us to the engineers guild.There should be someone there to help us.  
  
Felfior.  
  
Cho lands on a small deserted islad.  
  
Manta-Ah Felfior! Smell that fresh air?  
  
Burolis-It smells like fish.Can we hurry this up?  
  
The three walk right up to a tru Chozo Guard and beat him down.  
  
Manta-Gee that was fun!  
  
Sybern-This is not gonna be!  
  
A vast army of ships appears from behind the Armory.Above them a ship twice the size of the biggest flier.Out of the armory hordes of True Chozo pour out.  
  
Sybern-I think we should get back to Cho!  
  
Burolis and Sybern run back to Cho while Manta leaps at a True Chozo absorbing his energy just like a metroid.Manta gather the energy he just absorbed and fires it into the sky taking out a large group of ships.  
  
Sybern-Come on!  
  
Manta runs after his two freinds and into the ship.  
  
Sybern-Danger! Prepare for attack!  
  
Manta and Burolis sit down at a control consel each.  
  
Sybern-Cho! Get us out of here! Evasice action!  
  
They start to lift off when the ship is rocked with a blow.  
  
Cho-Shileds un hurt! Shield strentgh at 100%!Energy at 99 %! All hyrperspace and light fusion energy pulses deactivated.  
  
Manta-It means?  
  
Burolis-We can't use our speed boosters!  
  
Sybern-Okay.Generate shield all over Felfior. How long could it sustain itself without direct energy pulses?  
  
Cho-5 hours.  
  
Sybern- Do it.But release it on my mark.Bring us out of Charybdis arispace and into neutral territory.  
  
Burolis-All weapons ready and online.  
  
Manta-The mothership is the slowest but strongest.Most of those other ships have almost no offensive weapons but it will be hard tpo kick down those sheilds.  
  
Suddenly on the view screen a large black Chozo appears.  
  
True Chozo-Give yourself up.You have no chance surrender!  
  
Manta-Get a life!  
  
Burolis-Load ATma Torpedo.  
  
Cho-I am sorry Burolis.ATMA Torpedos acan only be fired by Sybern.  
  
Buolis-Override command alpha!  
  
Cho-Override command accepted.  
  
Sybern-No!  
  
Burolis-Atma Torpedos 100% strength. Heat seekers 100%. Phaser all locked on mother ship. Release shield over Felfior.Take us out of here. Fire in 5.....4......3..........2........1!  
  
Sybern-You drained all are offensive weapons! It will take Cho at least 2 days to create more!  
  
Burolis-Look!  
  
They all wacthed as the mothership exploded followed by Feflior,the armory and all of the cruisers.Then suddenly another mothership appears out of the clouds.  
  
Message-Thank you for destroying those rather old and worthless models. Preape for tow.You have been captrued by the TRUE CHOZO!  
  
Cho and everyone inside are being towed into a Ture Chozo mothership.  
  
Burolis-This is not good.  
  
Manta-What now?  
  
Sybern-We wait.  
  
Suddenly 4 true Chozo burst into Cho.They handcuff each passenger with a strange light beam.A True Chozo walks out.His face covered ina strange mask.Behind him two large creatures slowly approach.  
  
Burolis-::Whispering::What are those things?  
  
Sybern-They look like......mutants.  
  
True Chozo Leader- Take the human and the bird to be cloned than mutated. I want the freak to come with me.  
  
The three heroes are taken away.  
  
A pit aboard the True Chozo Mothership.  
  
Sybern and Burolis have been tied to a bed and left ina dimly lighted room with one huge mated person and an intercom.  
  
Voice-You will be a delicous feast for my little lizards!  
  
Suddenly a hiss is heard and a small door opens. 5 lizards with green ooze dripping form there teeth crawl out.They slowly walk towards Burolis and Sybern when they spot a much bigger target. They leap at the mutant and only clamp there jaws on him for a second.They circle around him and watch his body swell and puff.Fonnaly they start to devour him slowly.  
  
Sybern-Oh my god!  
  
Research room  
  
Manta is tied to a chair and a helmet is on his head.  
  
True Chozo Leader- You were to be our crowing acheivment.You were supposed to destroy the ones who opposed us. Now you will do that.......as a mindless zombie!  
  
Mnata-May I have one last meal.  
  
True Chozo Leader-Very well what will it be?  
  
Manta-Could I just touch one of those mutants.Ia m a metroid you know.  
  
  
True Chozo Leader-Very well.Guard!  
  
A guard approaches Manta. Manta sticks his arm out and absorbs the guards energy.He uses it to destroy the bars that cconfine him.  
  
Manta-Where are my freinds?  
  
True Chozo Leader-You will never find them! They are probably dead already!You can kill me but you will never destroy the true Chozo!!!!  
  
Manta puts both his hands to the True Chozo's head and absorbs his energy.  
  
Manta then runs to find Cho. He accesses the computer and taps into the motherships computer.He soon locates his freinds. He gets to the pit and destroys the little lizards just as they are about to attack.. They all leave.  
  
Sybern-Cho.Set course for Rogell  
  
*** The next posts are the first posts I worked with JGiannanto for ***  
  
Above the Mor Ocean.  
  
Sybern-I call your attention one and all!  
  
Burolis and Manta look up from there consoles.  
  
Sybern-I have talked with some people and we have been enlisted with the rebellion.My freinds Luke and Houston have also enlisted. We are to me them at the Mor ocean at the underwater city of Dalus.  
  
Burolis-Yes!Now we have a chance!  
  
Cho-Prepaering underwater mode.  
  
Soon they splash into the warm waters of Mor.  
  
Sybern-Activate underwater tracking sequence.Search for ShadowFlax.  
  
Cho-Searching......  
  
Manta-Think they can help?  
  
Burolis-I hope so.  
  
Cho-Target found.Warning dangerous levels of radiation found.  
  
Sybern-Can we dock?  
  
Cho-Systems say yes.The levels are able to sustain life.Warning! Sqaudrons(a squadron is 5 ships) of True Chozo war harriers have entered the area.Follows by10 legions of mini ships(a legion is 100 ships) and 1 Mothership.  
  
Manta-How many motherships they got?  
  
Sybern-Open comm channels.Patch me in to the ShadowFlax.  
  
The screen lights up and Luke appears.  
  
Luke-You must be Sybern!  
  
Sybern-Luke?  
  
Luke-Aye matey thats me.::Luke smiled brightly::  
  
Sybern-This is Burolis and this is.........Wheres Manta?   
  
Out of the shadows steps Manta.Luke stares for a second and then forgets about the face.  
  
Sybern-We are gonna board now.  
  
The two ships meet and a loud hiss goes offf as the ships connected. Manta steps through and stares eye to eye with Houston. Luke standing from his chair at the consel gets up.Behind him a large bird begins to waddle. Its mouht opens and closes.Suddenly Manta realizes how big this bird REALLY is.  
  
Manta-Luke watch!  
  
Manta leaps over Houston and on to Lukes shoulds.Using the leverage he tackles the bird. They both fall to a pile on the floor.There is a soft nglow and Manta rises.  
  
Manta-I absorbed his power he will be out for a while.  
  
Manta starts to wipe his hands when the bird rises.Luke whips out a small phaser and shoots the bird thruogh the neck.  
  
Manta-Thanks.  
  
Sybern and Burolis board next.They all make formal introductions.  
  
Sybern-Houston I saw a whole mess of True Chozo ships coming this way.  
  
Houston-We should prepare.Luke set a course for Dalus.We'll meet you there.  
  
SYbern-See ya there.  
  
Sybern and crew get in Cho and speed off to Dalus.Soon they all arive there.  
  
Dalus Docking and Trading Center.  
  
Luke and Burolis talk of upgrading the others ship.Sybern and Houston talk of battle plans. Manta walks alone.  
  
Sybern-Woah!Look at that!  
  
They all stare at a large blue ships that could carry boththere ships.  
  
Houston walks up to the trader.  
  
Houston-How much for that ship?  
  
Trader-For you my freind only 7000 credits!  
  
Burolis-::whispering to Manta::Only.  
  
Sybern-Hey guys lets chip in.  
  
They all pool there money and by the ship.Luke and Burolis go inside with Manta and start to upgrade there ships.Later Manta pilots the Shadow Flax and Cho inside.Sybern and Houston rest at an inn.  
  
Sybern-Think we can hold them off?  
  
Houston-With that ship we just bought maybe.At least now I have a full crew.  
  
Sybern-I am getting some sleep.  
  
Houston-I am gonna talk to the leader of the Dalus military.Maybe we can get some help.  
  
Houston stood in front of the throne room of the Dalus Central Capital Globe. It was a massive structure, looming over Dalus as far as the eye could see.   
"Please enter." The short Decebur guard pleaded.  
"But do you not wish for me to even disarm myself?"  
"No such need. I know you mean no harm to our leader. I can sense anger... and rage.. and you do not carry either, at least not towards our leader."  
Houston raised an eyebrow, somewhat impressed at the wise words of the funny looking creature. Then, he entered the throne room.  
The apparant leader of the Decebur sat upon his throne, garmented in proud clothes that seemed to fit well for his race. He was short, and he had some long droopy scales hanging from his upper lip. He appeared ancient, yet very vibrant. His shade of green was paler than the others, and he looked somehow more brilliant.  
"You have come to warn me, soldier?" The smooth, thick voice called to him.. it had a beckoning tone.  
"Yes..." Houston murmurred, a tad mezmerized by the voice of the king. "We beleive that a violent race known as the 'True Chozo,' which are actually a violent species of mutations, are going to destroy your peaceful city in order to make room for a silent genetic station which they will use as an outpost to attack the world."  
"Hoooooow can you be so sure?" The leader hissed in his soothign tone.  
"Simple... I was held prisoner on board their flagship, and I uncovered much information that way."  
"I ssssseee..."   
"And we have never had a more urgent rush. This very mission determines the future of the world. If we fail, the odds of Charybdis fall greatly. If we succeed, both you and Charybdis have a better chance."  
"But we have had veeeeery little dealing with the war. Why do they ataaaack us so violently?"  
"Because. They need your ocean for their ocean genetic station. Building on land is impractical, because they will certainly go noticed. No one would suspect a secret building in this ocean."  
"But, weeeeee have a problem. Weeee are veeeery peaceful here, my Hoouuuuuuuuuuston. Weee caaaaaary no militareee."  
Houston stiffened in horror. "WHAT?!?"  
"We have never battled with waaar, Mr. Houstooon. Weee have never had the need for a militareeee..."  
Houston began trembling in a cold sweat. "You mean.. it is just our rebellion against an entire army of violent mutations?"  
"Whooo is in your army?"  
"Only nine... a human hybrid named Sybern, a chozo bird named Burolis, a faltered mutation called Manta, an unnamed warrior named Hugesprite, a budding fighter named Jaime Wolfe, a handsome human known as Oralus Clayborne, my friend Luke Allimandus, another friend named Sarius Dallas, who just happens to be held captive by the enemy, and me.. and only Luke, Sybern, Burolis, Manta, and I are here so far... there is no telling when the other three will arrive!"  
"Weee can offer little assistance. But we beg you, pleeeease doo what youuuuu can for our nation.. we neeeed your help!" The soothing voice of the King became desperate.  
Houston bowed his head. "It will be a suicide, but Luke and I have already survived several suicides. We will duel with the birds, and we hope to stall them until some sort of devine intervention gets in their way... the government above is a total mess, and I don't expect their assistance anytime soon. My hopes is that we will somehow strategically drive them away.. our odds are slim.. may the spirits of Kings of Messina gone by help us... I must go plan for battle."  
Houston left the court of the king, his head bowed in udder silence...  
Houston met with the company once again.. this time a solemn look on his face.  
"What is the matter?" Sybern asked, looking quite concerned.  
"They have no military."  
The others gasped in horror.  
"What can we do?" cried Burolis.  
Houston's head now lifted in silent pride and thought, his scarred face appeared lighter than before.   
"I see before me three ships, and four other men. We will have to split up. Luke? Have you finished repairing ShadowFax?"  
"Yes, sir." Luke said, impressed by the stature of his greatest friend. "All except for one cannon turret on the port bow."  
"That is fine." He replied. "I have a feeling bullets will be useless while fighting underwater. Luke, you will ride solo in your prided ship, ShadowFax. I beleive you know that ship better than anyone could. Burolis?"  
"Yes, Houston?"  
"You gave talk about upgrading the rusty mothership we bought. Have you?"  
"As much as we could afford. I got a hold of three used plasma cannons and a new ice beam. Not much for a ship its size, but it will have to do."  
"Then we have three armed ships..." Houston reviewed to himself. He was silent in thought for a moment, and then he burst back in. "Okay.. so Luke will go on the ShadowFax alone... Sybern.. you and Burolis take Cho.. you seem familiar with that ship. And..."  
Houston looked over towards Manta, who was lurking in the shadows. He took a deep breath. "And... Manta and I will take our new flagship..."  
Sybern was not satisfied yet. "What's our hardcore strategy?" He inquired.  
"Manta and I will take our new flagship.. what shall we name it? Boromie, any suggestions?" He turned to the fair Chozo Bird.  
Boromir nodded. "Yes... I like the name... RebelKnife."  
Houston nodded. "RebelKnife it is. Manta and I will take the RebelKnife and carry you towards the enemy, to the north. It is best we battle them before they reach fair Dalus. But we can't be too assured- there is no telling if they will have another squad waiting to the far west, or far south for that matter. And we will have to fight conservatively, considering there are only but five of us. When we arrive to the enemy, I will undock the ShadowFax and Cho from our loading docks. ShadowFax will take a head on course for the enemy. Cho will cover the rear, making sure that no Chozo sneak through our borders, and keeping a radar lookout so that nothing comes from behind."  
Sybern released a grisly smile. "A well met strategy, captain Houston!"  
Houston looked toward his wrist monitor. "According to calculations, our fleets should meet in only thirty minutes.. I suggest we take off now. SCRAMBLE!"  
And with that command, all of the warriors that were once talking of simple things rushed to their stations and fired up their ships..   
  
This was a desperate battle...  
  
The RebelKnife drifted slowly through the waters of Mor. They had now arrived at their destination point. Houston dabbled with the controls with anticipation.. the sort of feeling you get when you know something's coming.. but when.. you're not sure.  
The ship's control monitor buzzed in. "Any signs yet?" The voice of Burolis rang clear.  
"Not.. yet..." Houston murmered, his eyes glued to the horizon.  
"They come." Manta spoke, his eyes frozen like a droid's.  
"What? There are no ships on the horizon!" Houston asked, in profound horror.  
"My sight is different from yours... they come..."  
Houston didn't feel like arguing with the mutant.. in fact, he was so agitated right now, that he took his advice without caution.   
"This is Houston.. I am releasing you from your docks. Assemble in battle positions and prepare to carry out your tasks."  
ShadowFax and Cho sailed away from RebelKnife. Cho sailed back from RebelKnife, while ShadowFax sped quickly forward. As soon as they were in formation, like clockwork, the Chozo fleet came into league.  
"THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF THEM!" Houston shrieked in horror.  
"Better odds..." Manta murmured. "I smell death..."  
Houston turned to Manta, appalled. "You are so morbid!"  
"I am a violent cross between Metroid and Chozo.. I am not meant to be a social worker, my colleague."  
"You astound me!"  
"Life hands you Lemons, make Lemonade.. my friend, I suggest you use my instictive rage to your advantage, or I will be forced to use it against you."  
Houston cringed in fear, but not in retreat. "Okay, Manta. You hold my respect... but you have to prove yourself to me as a warrior, whether you be gruesome or not."  
As Houston finished his sentence, Manta gripped the controls on his side of the control bridge and sped the RebelKnife towards the enemy fleet. He fired and retreated with great finnesse, especially for a creature of his stature. When he pulled out, he turned to Houston.  
"Convinced?" He gargled, smugly.  
Houston stood as he watched the debris of thirteen chozo ships sailed to the ocean floor in flames. He checked their status window.. they had only been hit.. scratched more like it.. by four chozo lazers and skimmed by a missle.  
"Amazing!" Houston staggered. "All right, friend. I'm starting to like you a little now. But, we're going to have to crush a bit more than thirteen ships.. we're going upon thousands of them!"   
Mantra nodded. "And one skitchin mothership.. I love fighting against the odds."  
"Well, control yourself. Five shots on us may sound like very little now, but it adds up. Lets fight strategically."  
"Strategy is for military, and military lose battles. We wouldn't be in this condition if it wasn't for your planet's awful military."  
"Hey, I know some very prestigous members in the military who could toast you in a fair fight! And don't blame me for our tactical problems. I am a BOUNTY HUNTER! What you hear come from my mouth is hardly advanced technique... and it is relatively wild compared to most strategy."  
"Strategy is strategy, friend. And it leaves little room for improvasion. It leads to suicide."  
Their conversations was interuppted by a barrage of blasts... the computer, obviously and older model, spoke.  
"Your hull has suffered 8 missle blasts and 1 shredded missle. Your shields are at 89%."  
Houston turned to Manta. "Time to set our differences aside, mate. We've got a situation to worry about."  
"Aye!"  
  
The RebelKnife begun its movements, and dived towards its assailants.  
  
Sybern gripped his set of controls tightly. RebelKnife had just dropped the ball and about twenty ships were headed his way. Burolis perked to attention.  
"Cho? What do you suggest in this.. situation?"  
"I suggest surrender..."  
Burolis slapped her head, very unamused. "Come on, Cho.. this is your wires on the line too.."  
"I would take you into autopilot, except my version does not include battle tactics..."  
"Quit talking about what you DON'T have and tell me what you CAN do..."  
"Well, twenty ships is no laughing matter... and the fact that they'll be in firing range in mere seconds is no better.."  
"COME ON, CHO! We don't have time for your comments!"  
"I am simply processing, master Burolis. I am not good at speed talking.. my version does not include it.."  
"Just SHUT UP!" Sybern cried at the computer. It didn't say another word. "That computer isn't doing us much good, Burolis."  
"I realize that..."  
"Well, we've got approximately eighteen seconds to figure out what to do.. or we may as well kiss our shields goodbye."  
Burolis grabbed her control and shot Cho into the bottom of the sea, near a large coral patch.  
"What are you doing? HIDING! BEHIND A CORAL PATCH!" Sybern was quite agitated.  
"Trust me.. if I know my race.."  
The chozo ships came into view, and immediately open fire upon the ship, Cho, behind the coral patch. The gunfire all soaked into the Coral, and made no path to Cho.  
"As I was saying, If I know my race, they only use Plasma blasters... which makes very little dent in most organic materials, namely CORAL!"  
Sybern was so happy that he reached his arms around his friend Chozo and gave her a great hug. "Oh, man! Do I owe you one!"  
"We aren't out of the woods yet." Burolis exclaimed, pointing out the fact that there were still twenty Chozo ships sailing nearby.  
"We're using Phaser and Wave beams, correct?" Sybern asked, with a wide smile.  
"You betcha."  
"And they burn right through Coral, right?"  
"You betcha."  
Sybern turned back to his controls. "Then leave this one to me."  
WIth a couple button presses, the cannons of the Cho were armed and ready for fire. Sybern set his monitor gauge carefully and set a carefully aimed stream of fire race towards the Chozo fleet. Within seconds, the entire fleet was nothing more than Ocean Garbage."  
"All right, Sybern!" Burolis squeeled.  
  
Sybern carefully piloted Cho above the Coral, and prepared for any more ships which may be approaching.  
  
The Battle continued..   
  
Luke piloted the ShadowFax into the heart of the battle, using his great flying finesse to down ship after ship after ship.... he flew straight threw the middle of hundreds of ships, causing them all to fire in confusion. The ShadowFax was barely ever hit... but the Chozo blew away many of there own ships. Luke darted in calm delight as he watched Chozo ships a plenty sink to the great depths of Mor.  
The computer buzzed in. "Luke- You are being hailed."  
Luke slowed down, but still flew the ship, dodging lazers. "All right.. monitor on... open hail."  
On his small dashboard monitor, Luke looked into the face of his long-feared enemy.  
"Captain.. Carcinogen..." he whispered in horror.  
In his monitor, he saw a very digruntled half man/borg. The enemy's eyes were narrowed, and his nostrils flared with anger. "WHY DO YOU INTERFERE!" He screeched, causing the computer speakers to quiver and shutter. "DON'T YOU REALIZE YOUR ATTEMPTS ARE FUTILE! YOU AND YOUR BAND ONLY DELAY US! WHY DO YOU BOTHER US!!! THREE AGAINST THOUSAND! What are your chances?"  
Luke looked back into the monitor with increased ferocity. "That's just the odds.. three in a thousand.. but with every one of your ships I blast down, our chances increase."  
"Well spoken." The captain said, suddenly calming down. "But you are still in a battle of futility. For my flagship is now fully armed. Why don't you just pull out, and let our cause be? We will just come back with new reinforcements. You cannot last long."  
Luke looked back, now smug. "I don't know.. there is a flaw in your great breed of Chozo... they are stupid. Already, I have downed nearly a hundred ships... and they fight back with no strategy. No real flair.. they are puppets, and like most puppets, they can't be controlled completely.. they are stupid, therefore making them easier targets. And with my ambition, I shall down every one of them, without a scratch to my precious ship."  
Carcinogen grunted in anger. "So you are correct." He muttered. "Like shooting ducks, I beleive. I watch you fight, and I almost fill with fear myself. But enough! I offer a proposal, one that you cannot refuse. I beleive you have met my virus recently?"  
Luke smacked his monitor in frustration. "SO! That was you who tried to meltdown my ship!"  
"Yes indeed! And, I have a second one ready to detonate by remote."  
Luke looked left in right in horror, as if the virus would pop out to meet him. Then, he turned back to the monitor, a stern look on his face. "You bluff.. I had a complete systems run down after the first.."  
"Yes, but do you want to take that chance? Oh, and one more thing.. your friend Sarius is still here.. and she is still alive.. but for how long, I cannot say... her chances would be substantially better if you came down to the station..."  
Luke's jaw dropped. His eyes swelled. He looked in complete and utter horror at his vidterm screen.. and a tear dropped from his eye onto the monitor. "I.. I will be there..." He said, sorrowfully.  
"Goooood.. you really care for the girl, no?"  
Luke was silent.  
"Well, I find it valiant that you would risk an entire race, and in fact, the entire planet, so that one girl may live forever in our custody... but, so be it. Report to our flagship immediately."  
The vidterm turned off, and Luke was left floating in silence alone. His vidterm beeped once again, and the voice of Houston came resounding out.  
"Luke? Luke? What's going on?" He asked, desperately.  
Luke made no reply.  
"Luke? Are you all right? Why aren't you blasting any more Chozo? It's getting hectic over here?"  
Luke opened his eyes a slit, hung his head over to the intercom voice speaker.. and whispered. "Goodbye..."  
And in a melancholy motion, he put his ship into autopilot, and set his coordinates to the flagship...  
"LUKE! LUKE!" The intercom screamed. "WHERE ARE YOU GOING!!!"  
Luke's throat swelled... he could not answer.  
"LUKE! Don't betray us.. you've been so faithful.. are you really turning to the enemy..?"  
Luke said nothing..  
Mor Ocean  
  
Houston and Manta dodge some more ships. Houston,after many unsuccesful tries, cannot vere Luke away from the flagship.He stares in horrow as Luke lands in the docking bay of the ship.  
  
Houston-Manta Hail Sybern.  
  
Manta-Yes.  
  
Suddenly Sybern's face bursts onto the screen.  
  
Sybern-Houston! We're doing fine here!Whats wrong?  
  
Houston-Luke........he's.......  
  
Manta-Luke boarded the flagship.  
  
Suddenly Burolis popped her head in.  
  
Burolis-WHAT!?  
  
Houston-I don't know what to do....I.....I....I....  
  
Sybern-Get a hold of yourself!  
  
Houston-Your right freind.Let us stay in positiion.Manta take the RebelKNife closer to the flagship.Sybern keep up the good work.  
  
Houston cuts the communication and whizzes off to the battle.  
  
Cho  
  
Burolis-Wait.There's a ......rumbleing.  
  
In a burts of bubbles 5 large lizards burst from trench.Each one is as big as the mothership.The True Chozo fire at them and all hit.The lizards turn and start to whip there tails madly.  
  
Sybern-They just took out 10 legions!  
  
Burolis-They'e vforced the, into a corner.A total of 11 legions destroyed.  
  
Cho-If we nail the clump of ships we would greatly hurt the fleet. It would also make the odds much more on our side.  
  
Sybern-Load a Atma torpedo.Fire it at the clump of ships.  
  
Cho-Warning! We have been hit!  
  
Burolis-What?  
  
Sybern-They were cloaked!  
  
Cho-Sheilds at 78%  
  
Burolis-Move to exilary powr for shields.Fire wave cannons at the ships that cheap shot us and fire that Atma Torpedo!  
  
The clump of ships explodes but sorrily alos takes out the strange lizards that helped them.The ships that were cloaked also explode.  
  
Burolis-There falling back!  
  
Cho-Houston is hailing.  
  
Sybern-Open the comm unit.  
  
Houston-Wew are winning!  
  
Manta-Uh oh...The Motherships. Its heading straight for us.  
  
Cho-Sybern we are being hailed.  
  
Houston-We are too.  
  
the ugly mug of Captainl Carcinogen appears.Behind him tied up is Sarius.Luke stands next to her guards on either side of him.  
  
Houston-Luke!  
  
Luke looks at his feet.  
  
Sybern-you scum!  
  
Carcinogen-Move away from Dalus!My ships can easily overpower you!  
  
Houston-Let us decide please hold.  
  
The comm link closes.  
  
Houston-Sybern get Cho inside.We're goin straight for the mothership.  
  
The Ocean Mor...  
  
Aboard the Chozo Mothership, the Captain Carcinogen awaits in the bridge to see his enemies next moves. Behind lies Sarius Dallas, bound and unconcious. To her side is Luke Allimandus, nervous.. looking downwards. There were three Chozo guards in the room, obviously the human-chozo hybrids, known better now as Chomen.   
The Captain laughed wildly, looking out into the ocean via his great bridge monitor. "Oh, Luke! It looks like your brave little friends are coming! I don't think you'll want to meet them now.. they're mad at you!"  
Luke stood silent, saying nothing.  
The captain turned to him. "You know, I was going to let them go when you turned yourself in.. but now.. I'm afraid I have no chance but to destroy them..."  
Luke rose his head, his face trembling in horror.  
"Yes, Luke, that's right. They must deserve it to so blindly wander into the home of death.... but you.. I'll keep you around.. there's something I want you to see..."  
Carcinogen snapped his fingers twice, and two of the guards ran out and into the hall, shouting orders down the hall. Soon, a great troupe of warriors were dashing down the hall.  
The Captain laughed his wild laugh again. "Soon, Luke, your resistance will be crushed just as fast as it was started.. you didn't really expect to win, did you? Just you, a lonely five, against an army of thousands? We have won the war already, Luke. If we want to enlist another troop, we just fire up the ole genetic replicator and bingo! A new warrior, completely at our control. We have become so efficient, Luke, that we now create nearly a hundred Chozoids a day.... in a mere two weeks this loss will be made up."  
Luke turned to Sarius and felt her hand.. it was chilly. He looked at her face.. it was pale... this woman he hadn't seen for a mere week looked like she aged years. She appeared to be more adult than ever.. and she had a grisly face, which made Luke cringe in fear.  
"What have you done to her?" Luke asked, still looking at Sarius.  
"That's what I wanted you to stick around for." Carcinogen said, in a low, deadly tone. "We have completed her.. reprogramming..."  
Luke's eyes widened in horror. "No..." he murmurred.  
"YES! What you see before you is no longer Sarius Dallas, but an exact replica of Samus Aran, in every way but her alignment.. she takes orders from us, now."  
Luke fell to his knees, and laid his eyes in his hands. "I am too late.."  
"YES YOU ARE!" the Captain said, leering over Luke. "And.. I pity you.. you have lost a woman you cared for deeply.. so, I tell you what. You can see her face animated once more, but it will be the last thing you see...."  
Luke started to back away.. realizing the inevaitable was about to come.   
"SAMUS! AWAKEN! AND DESTROY THE ENEMY!"  
Sarius's eyes opened, and she rose from her boundings. "Yes, Captain.. I shall eliminate the target..."  
Sarius shot up from her seat, and jumped high... a VERY surprising hight for a human... and she came down on Luke, her boot crushing his face. Luke fell, his lip a bloody mess. "Auto Shield On!" He screeched. His suit emitted a shield built totally of protons...  
Carcinogen laughed. "So.. you wanna fight like that, huh? Let's even the odds... Samus.. put on.. THE SUIT!"  
Sarius nodded, and walked to the far corner of the room, where a battle suit lie... she picked it up and threw it on.. it looked much like Houston's suit, but it was more birdlike in structure.. Luke analyzed, remembering it from somewhere...  
Finally, he realized where he had seen it. This suit was the suit worn by the most famous Bounty Hunter in the Universe... every time she was seen on camera or in a portrait, she was wearing this suit... it was an exact replica of the true Samus Aran's ChozoSuit...  
  
Or he hoped... Luke silently prayed then and there, that the suit was just a replica...  
  
And not the actual thing... torn from the body of a dead Samus Aran...  
  
Houston jumped from RebelKnife and landed on the floor with a thump. He ran down the hall, Manta close behind, and they met Sybern and Burolis down the corridor.   
"I think he's expecting us..." Sybern muttered.  
"You can bet on it."  
And, like clockwork, an army of Chomen and Chozoids came rushing down the hall, their fangs drooling with the hunger for blood.  
"Ohhhh man.. in shipcraft we outmatch every Chozo..." Burolis muttered. "But when it comes to fighting, I doubt little that one of these birds could kill us all..."  
"What are we going to do?"  
"RETREAT!" Houston screeched, and they all turned around and gathered on the RebelKnife.  
Manta was ecstatic, he himself drooling at the thought of a battle. "Do we retreat?"  
"We can't.. we'll flood the ship.. we need five minutes to disband the air tube..."  
"Hurry.." Samus ordered. "All we can do is hope they aren't too deadly..."  
Houston looked up through the space bow windows and saw Chozos flinging themselves against the side of the ship. The drew their stony hands, and drove them into the sides, making large dents.   
"The ship won't hold out!" Burolis. "Take it from me- This ship is only a Porcelain-Aluminum alloy.. it won't take too much from those claws..."  
"We'll flood the entire wing of this ship if we get destoryed.."  
Just then, an alarm went off all through the hall of the flagship.   
The flagship's computers rang clear. "THE RIGHT WING OF THE SHIP WILL SEPARATE IN 5 SECONDS.."  
All of the Chozo birds ran off back into the hall.  
"Did you hear that?" Sybern cried. "They know we're here.. they're going to separate the port we're in from the ship and leave us floating here..."  
"If our sector gets separated, where will we fall into?" Manta inquired.  
Houston took a deep breath. "We will land in.. the Ring of Mor..."  
"You mean the great volcano ring at the bottom of the sea..."  
"None other.. if our port separates from the ship that is.."  
Just then, the entire ship shook... all the rebellion felt the force....the Chozo ship had dropped the entire port that the RebelKnife had landed in.. and the Rebels with it...  
  
Slowly, the entire right wing of the Chozo Flagship separated from the rest, and fell towards the Ring of Mor.  
  
Circle of Mor  
  
The Rebelknife has just floated to the circle of More.They sit in there ship and here a small rumbling.  
  
Burolis-Great timing.  
  
Houston- This is unbelieveable.Just as we crash the volcanoes start to erupt.  
  
Sybern-The crash must have sent them off.  
  
Manta-Why did we run?  
  
Houston-Honestly how could we try and destroy them all?  
  
Sybern- Wait a second.  
  
Houston-What is it?  
  
Sybern-I have an idea.Burolis-I want you to rig some explosives.  
  
Burolis-Out of what?  
  
Houston-::Opening a small package on the ninside of his suit::How are these.  
  
Burolis-Ohhhhhhh!Grenades.weak but I can supe them up.  
  
Sybern-Good.Manta I want you to hook Cho up to the main power.We need to amplify the shields and cloak us.  
  
Houston-Whta are you doing?  
  
Sybern-Watch.You have any suits?Like underwater suits.  
  
Houston-All I have is breathing harnesses.  
  
Sybern-Good get those.  
  
Burolis walks back in with 10 small bombs.  
  
Burolis-What now?  
  
Sybern-When Manta comes back give him the bombs.You suit up.  
  
Sybern grabs his breathing harness and puts it on.Houston and Burolis follow.Manta walks back in.  
  
Manta-I cloaked us and raised the shields to the limit.And I put it on intercom directly to Houston's suit.  
  
Sybern-Good.Manta while me Houston and Burolis swim to the mothership you throw these bombs into some volcanoes.When Carcinogen thinks we blew up he will forget about us.It will give us enough time to sneak in get Luke and get out.  
  
Manta-Send the mutation to do the real work while the others go to fight.  
  
Houston-When your done come and help.  
  
Sybern-As soon as we can I am gonna call Cho to pick us up.  
  
Houston-You know this is extremely risky.There is hardly enough air to get us there.  
  
Sybern-Gotta try.Besides what can we lose?  
  
They all leave and split up.Manta throws his grenades and takes cover as the volcanoes explodewith earth shaking force.He slowly makes hiw way to follow hjis freinds on the assault.  
  
After Sarius had dawned the now dreaded Chozo Suit, she looked intimidatingly towards Luke. Luke cringed in fear.. before, Sarius's eyes looked soft, kind, and intelligent. Now they looked warlike, and full of rage.   
Sarius pointed her arm cannon towards Luke. "Plasma Ray." She said, in a robotic tone.  
She released a solid stream of fire, and it soaked into Luke's Proton shield.   
Luke's battle suit gave him a desperate warning. "Proton Strength at 8%."  
When Sarius appeared to be charging up for a larger blast, Luke made sure to move. His manuever was just, for as he moved the blast was released and just barely missed him as it soaked into the wall, fraying its first layer. Luke swallowed hard as he thought of what would happen if he was standing there.  
"Sarius.. snap out of it!" Luke screeched.  
"It's no good, my valiant friend. Her own memory is now buried deep in her mind. She is now controlled only by my voice."  
Luke darted his head in the direction of Carcinogen....  
"KILL HIM, SAMUS! KILL HIM! DON'T STOP! KILL HIM!"  
The captain screamed.   
Luke whipped his head around once again, to see the barrel of a fully charged plasma beam aimed straight at him. He leaped up to get out of the way, but the blast hit his foot. It completely sharded off the entire boot portion, and singed his knee badly, bleeding it near the ankle. Luke fell and moaned.  
"FINISH HIM!" Carcinogen screamed.  
Sarius stood, her arm cannon aimed straight for Luke. Luke just looked into the cannon.. mumbling...  
"Don't do it, Sarius.." he whispered.  
Sarius stood, holding her fire. The fully charged plasma beam was being contained in a firey charge at the end of the arm cannon.  
"KILL HIM NOW!" Carcinogen yelled, once more.  
Just as it appeared Sarius was going to shoot, Luke made a swift manuever with his good knee and knocked Carcinogen to the floor. Luke put one arm around his neck, and one on top of his head, and wrapped his legs around him, ensuring he would go nowhere. Now, Carcinogen lay in the path of fire between Sarius and Luke.  
"NO!" The Captain screamed. "NO! DON'T KILL HIM YET!"  
The energy ball at the end of Sarius's cannon died out. She stood, looking as plain as a zombie.  
"Well, young Luke.. now we're in trouble..." The captain murmurred, trying to catch his breath from Luke's tight strangling hold.  
"Indeed, we are... but your choices aren't deep... you either have Sarius kill me AND you, or you can return Sarius to normal, or I can just snap your neck right here. I suggest the second choice. Then, I can let you live."  
Carcinogen inhaled hard. "You are a deadly opponent, and shrewd nonetheless. Okay.. I shall return her to normal. SAMUS! BECOME SARIUS ONCE MORE!"  
When he finished his sentence, Sarius fell to the floor, her eyes fluttering. When she looked out, she cried with a shrill scream.  
"LUKE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"  
Luke motioned for her to quiet down. "It's okay.. we're cool..."  
Sarius then looked at herself. "What am I wearing?"  
"I'll explain later.. right now, we've go to get out..."  
"Please.. cut the throat of that awful man!" Sarius said, indicating she was speaking of the Captain.  
"I very well should..." Luke mumbled. "But I have made a deal with him for all of our lives. And I honor my choices... Sarius, come to me now, and help me get up.. I have injured my foot."  
Sarius cautiously crept over to Luke, her arm cannon poised for the captain.. she seemed to know how to use it naturally. She helped Luke up, and substituted for his lost leg.  
"Thank you, Sarius. Now, we shall retreat... open the door, and carry me out, but do not let your arm cannon stray from the Captain."  
Sarius did as she was told, slowly and carefully. She then quickly carried Luke out the door, and started running down the corridor to where Luke directed her.  
After they left, the Captain smiled. "All is well.. I may have let her go, but she is still in my command.." he thought. "I can now destroy the rebellion.. from the inside out! If ever she hears my voice again..."  
  
Sarius sprinted down the hall, Luke slung on her back. She ran as fast as she could with the added weight, especially when she heard the alarm system going off. Soon, Chozo were pouring out of every hall and corridor in the vicinity. All had weapons and fangs with the target of Luke and Sarius clearly on their minds, they sprang to action.  
"Do not hurt the girl!" One of the Chomen said with a hiss, in his native tongue. "The captain is rather fond of her..."  
Somehow, Sarius understood their foreign language and, without thinking, she threw Luke to the ground and covered the top of him.  
"You shall not hurt either of us... to get to Luke, you must shoot me..."  
"No.. it's not worth it.." Luke whispered.  
A small group of Chomen approaced Sarius to peel her off, and she drove them back with surprising force from her suit.. Luke had never seen such fighting finesse. Soon, five Chomen lay on the ground, injured or killed by Sarius.  
"You can't fight them all off...." Luke mumbled.  
And he was right... next came a wave of ten chomen, and they assailed Sarius less cautiously. She easily blew away the first four, and nailed two others, but the remaining six got hold of her, and begun dragging her off Luke.  
"Kill him." The lead choman said.  
Sarius squirmed in aggresive frustration... "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"   
Sarius's body was dragged away from Luke, and she was kicking and screaming. Three Chozos gathered around the injured engineer, and their acidic beaks started to drool with delight of a fleshy meal...  
  
Just then, A great clamor was aroused from the outside corridor. As if they were summoned, Sybern, Houston, and Burolis all came rushing through the door. Each one started blasting Chomen left and right. The Chomen protecting Sarius and Luke were startled. Sarius sprang free, blasting away at least five chomen as soon as she was released.   
A brutal battle raged on between the some forty chomen and the four rebels, but the chomen were outmanned by the fact that the warriors were carrying some very hefty artillery. Soon, all that remained in the corridor were bodies of dead Chomen.  
"Where is he?" Gasped Sarius, catching her breath. "Where is Luke?"  
Houston looked quickly in all directions. "Some Chomen must have dragged him away."  
"Well we've got to find him!" Sarius screeched.  
Suddenly, Houston's wristmonitor rang in. He lifted it to his mouth and spoke. "Houston here.. what's up?"  
The desperate face of Manta appeared on the screen. "I've got a problem, Houston." He mumbled.  
"What's up?"  
"The volcanoes.. they are going to explode.. and me, Cho, and the RebelKnife with it... I require some assistance."  
Houston looked up desperately. "We need to get him!"   
Sarius shook her head. "We need to rescue Luke!"  
Sybern stepped forward, his arms spread out casually. "We'll just split up. One person can go back for Manta. The others will invade the flagship and find Luke. So.. who's going to leave?"  
Everyone looked at everyone else. Finally, Houston broke the montonomy. "I will go.. I was starting to like ole Manta."  
"Agreed." Nodded Sybern. "The rest of us will trace Luke..."   
Burolis looked around. "It doesn't look like it's going to be an easy task... this ship is huge! Many, many leagues."  
"A problem we'll have to face." Sarius stated, bravely. "They can't have gone to far..."  
"All right.. we're wasting time! Let's move!"  
  
Houston ran back down the hall. The others looked around, confused as to what direction they should start with...  
  
Luke gripped his leg, as he wrenched in pain while two chomen dragged him down a hall.   
Finally, they turned into a room with a very large door. Luke looked around him through his squinted eyes. It appeared to be a very advanced lab. Everywhere, things were happening. Vats and cylinders were all over, large machinery printing out complicated read outs. Luke was picked up and thrown onto a locking magnetic bench.  
The first choman turned it on, and the magnetic strip clung to his suit. He could not move. There was a TV monitor directly above his head.   
The monitor turned on, and Luke gasped in a muffled horror as he saw the face of Kraid.   
"Hello there, Luke." The figure hissed. "Nice to see you again.. we have a little surprise for you... look to your left..."  
Luke could not turn his head with the magnetic strip clinging to his helmet, so he jiggled his face and turned his eyes. There, in a plexiglass cage, was a menacing looking creature. It looked like a human, but its features were distorted. It's face was mutalated, and his flesh hang from his eyes. His arms were long, down to his knees. He had finned ears, armpits, toes, fingers, and other features to sickening to mention. He had not nostrils. His entire bare skin looked like it had been cut, when really it was his natural feature. He had horns sticking out of his stomach, and he was mostly bald, with a few strands of slimy green hair.  
The voice of Kraid spoke again. "That was our first try at merging a human genetically.. as you can see, it didn't work out for the best... but now, we'll try again.. and you'll be our lab rat! So just settle down.. it will make things much more comfortable...  
  
Luke lay down silent, feeling once again the feeling of total hopelessness...  
  
He pitied himself already.  
  
Sarius carefully edged across the corridor, and turned the bend. Seeing nothing, she signaled for her friends to follow.  
"This will take forever!" Houston whispered. "We can't expect to search this entire ship for one man.. there must be an easier way."  
Sarius turned to Houston, a menacing look on her face. "If you know a better way, deadbeat, tell me. Otherwise, keep your damn trap shut."  
Houston recoiled in shock at the trash Sarius just muttered. From what Houston could recollect, Sarius was a good-natured woman. This was not her style.   
"Sarius..." Houston asked, softly. "Your words are harsh. Explain your treacherous words... or I should suspect you for treason, for that does not sound like the Sarius I know."  
Sarius hung her head. "I'm sorry, Houston. Whatever that.. thing.. did to me, it's still in some kind of aftermath..."  
Houston nodded, remembering how violent he was after Kraid had injected him with the war hormone and made him fight Luke. No doubt, Sarius was suffering the same symptons that he did until the drug wore off. "It's okay, Sarius." He said. "I understand now."  
"Good." Sarius responded, quickly. "We must continue our search.."  
Now Sybern was picking sides. "Hang on.." He stated. "We can't expect to find him and live if we continue our search in this manner... We will get lost if we ever do find him. Isn't there a simpler way?"  
Houston looked in a few random directions, and then his face lit up. "You know, it might just be a good thing our friend was wounded."  
Sarius turned to Houston, somewhat angry. "What?"  
Houston pointed down the corridor to the right, noting that there was a trail of blood leading down the hall. "That's Luke's blood, no doubt. I think we found our trail."  
  
Houston, Sarius, Sybern, and Burolis all quickly started to trace the trail.  
  
Luke lay perfectly still on his lab table, strapped in tightly. He was dead tired, not having any sleep since the battle started, and his foot was swollen with infection, and burnt badly near the toes. He had lost a lot of blood from his upper ankle, where his battle suit had been blasted off. The remainder of the leg portion of his battle suit was a jagged edge, and while the Chomen were carrying him to the lab, he had cut a deep gash in his foot, and he was bleeding profusely. And now he lay, wounded and half-asleep, awaiting the inevitable fate that was to be his doom... to become a mutation.   
The two chomen scrambled quickly about the room, picking up loose items and flicking on machinery. One of them turned to the closet, opened it, and wheeled out a Horned-Lizard, unconcious in a cylinder tube.  
Kraid's ugly mug was still shining brightly out of the ominous monitor above Luke's head. "You may begin when ready."  
One of the chomen approached Luke with a menacing mechanism. It consisted of wires and knives, and it was long. It streched all the way to the other choman, who was now installing the midevil machine onto the Horned-Lizard. The choman working on Luke took a long tube with a sharp edge, and stuck the end calmly into Luke's chest. It's end was scraping his ribs. Luke squirmed in pain. The choman then stuck a small electronic pad on to each of Luke's pulse points. Luke felt currents of energy flowing through him. He was now connected to the Horned-Lizard by way of this thing.  
The voice of Kraid spoke once again, filling the dazed ears of Luke. "Well, Luke. I'll explain this once to you, before you lose all reasonable thought. You see, what we do is accelerate all your atoms. Then, when you are so loosely connected that you can barely live, we fuse you together. Sometimes we get something good.. sometimes we get something gruesome. So far, we haven't gotten a human-lizard hybrid to live... but don't make that worry you... you'll soon lose all thought in your mind one way or the other. BEGIN, CHOMEN!"  
Machines buzzed. Wires sparked. The chomen backed away. Luke felt a strange sensation, as if he was falling, rising, and stretching all at the same time. He looked at himself, only it wasn't himself. He was distorting. Then, his body grew painful. He now saw himself distorting away from himself. His very body was separating into small portions. The pain become great, worse than death, and Luke tried to scream.. but he had no lungs to breath with.   
He felt in horror as his body started to move towards the Horned-Lizard... He could not move.. he could barely think above his pain. And then, he couldn't even think. His mind was now a billion separate molecules, and they were approaching the Horned Lizard...  
  
The door flew open, by means of a large plasma blast. And, as if they were summoned, Burolis and Sarius rushed into the room. Burolis leaped on one of the Chomen, and Sarius blasted another away with a perfect plasma shot. Sybern followed. Their eyes darted around the room, looking for Luke. What they saw was his swirling atoms, slowly approaching the Lizard.  
Sarius reacted quickly. She fired at every machine in the room, trying to shut everything down. When she was finished, Luke lay on the table in one piece.. he was not concious. Sarius rushed to him and felt for a pulse. "He's barely alive.. they almost killed him."  
A voice roared through the room. "THAT WAS TO BE MY GREATEST CREATION!"   
Sarius looked at the source of the voice. She saw the ceiling monitor, sporting Kraid's gruesome face. Sarius pointed her arm cannon towards it. "We're coming for you, slime-sucker." With that, she blasted the monitor away.  
Burolis wiped her brow. "I hope Houston is doing all right... it was fortunate he stayed with us long enough to show us the way, or else I don't think we would have found him..."  
"All in good time." Sarius murmured.   
  
Sybern, Burolis, Sarius and Luke upon her arm, all rushed out the lab.  
  
Houston dashed through the air duct. From there, he was in the open sea. He had just finished helping Sarius find a trail to Luke, but he had wasted valuable time doing it. Now, he needed to hurry to Manta in the Circle of Mor, before it blew up, the RebelKnife, Cho, and most importantly, Manta, with it.  
Houston felt the vibrations through the water as his sped with his battlesuit engine towards the blown off section of the Chozo Mothership. In short time, he was inside the lost portion. It was slowly filling with water. Manta was outside the RebelKnife, trying hard to get it started.   
"Houston! You are late! We are running out of time!"  
Houston slid to where Manta was trying desperately to fix the ship. The portion of the ship that had been separated from the Chozo mothership fell into the circle of Mor, and was now standing on its side. The RebelKnife had too fallen with the Portion, so it was standing on its side, making for some interesting engineering.  
Houston wiped the sweat of his brow intensly. "This is the one time we need Luke... he is a master engineer.. he would know what to do.. but now.."  
Manta turned to Houston, growling. "Talk not of the coulds, but of the shoulds.. we have no time to waste!"  
Houston sprang desperately into this oblong ship, carefully moving up and down the corridors to engineering. When he got in, he witnessed a mess. The battery had exploded, and its fluid had run down the floor (wall?).  
"We're going to need a jump start, Manta!" Houston hollered.  
Manta nodded from outside the ship. "I've got an idea! This ship portion still has lights on, so it must have power! If we can find someway to hook the RebelKnife up to the lost flagship, we can start this sucker up and fly out the ceiling."  
The ground rumbled violently, and threw Houston down and into a fission reactor. He examined himself, thankful he wasn't hurt.  
"We better hurry." Manta yelled. "It doesn't look like we'll be on vacation much longer."  
Houston looked up at what used to be the east wall of the ship.. now it was the ceiling. Up there was a box of emergency coaxial cables, cable of feeding power from the flagship to the RebelKnife. Problem was that this room was usually about thirteen feet across, leaving the emergency box up by about thirteen feet.  
Houston's mind shifted, and he came up with a brilliant solution. He whipped out his Ice Beam phaser from his artillery pack, and snapped it on the end of his beam. He then pointed upwards, and fired. He watched satisfaction as the box froze. He then picked up a piece of broken machinery and threw it at the box. It shattered into pieces of ice, leaving the coaxial cables dangling below. Houston grabbed the largest and jumped down out of the ship. The earth shook violently again.  
When Houston finally made it to the interior of the Flagship wing, he was horrified as he saw lava mixing with the water. Manta turned to him. "It's begun to ooze.. quickly, now!"  
Houston turned to the wall of the flagship, and spotted a power line. He snatched into it using his excavier jacknife built into his suit. He then popped the coaxial cable into the power line.  
"Manta! Get in the ship and take off! I'll be inside!"  
Manta nodded, leaped in the ship, and started it... he let out a whoop of joy. Houston darted back into the ship.  
  
With a smile on his gruesome face, Manta shot the RebelKnife upwards and out the chute of the Flagship wing. And just in time, too- as they left, the Circle of Mor blew, completely annihlating the lost portion of the chozo flagship.  
  
The ship's monitor buzzed in. Manta looked into the face of a winded Sarius, who was speaking to him via wristmonitor. "You're out.. Good. We need you to pick us up now! We are at docking bay B4... hurry! We are being attacked by mass Chozo... I don't know how long we can hold out!"  
Manta took a deep breath. The forces of the chozo flagship now looked impenetrable.. he had no idea how he was going to get in alone...  
  
Manta- This is great I gotta pick them up by myself AND there attacked by loads of Chozo.Computer! Autoa track to Sybern's dna strand.  
  
Computer-Accessing........  
  
Manta-Locate and dock ship at docking bay B4.  
  
Computer-Locate complete.  
  
Manta-Good.  
  
Manta gets up and walks to the back of the ship. He finds the carcass of the Chozo warbird that they had thrown into the rebelknife.  
  
Manta-Momma said I should have been an engineer.  
  
Manta begins to hook up various instruments to the slightly decayed body.Soon the ship lands at the Chozo Mothership.  
  
Manta-Just some last minute hook ups.....and.....Done!  
  
Manat stands back and looks at his creation. Underlaced with grenades and proto beams the bird,now mindless and controlled by Manta,waddles forward.It stares at Manta blankly.  
  
Manta-Attack True Chozo and Chomen.  
  
Warbird-Huh?  
  
Manta-Good enough  
  
Manta finally equips a ice grenade, a small device he found under a console, and charges to the docking bay doors.They slowly open and he stares at a wall of Chozo and chomen.Sarius and Co flood in followed by Chomen.Manta lets loose a full blast of energy then sends out the warbird.  
  
Manta-Selfdestruct in 15 seconds!  
  
Manta then throws the ice grenade at the docking bay doors and they freeze shut.  
  
Manta-Come on!Hurry!  
  
Sarius takes Luke to the sick bay while Houston,Burolis and Sybern strap in and prepare to escape.  
  
Houston-How much time?Not enough.There were enough explosives to blow the ship off the planet.Combined with the volcanoes I say anything within 5000 kilcks is destroyed.  
  
Sybern-Thats just outside Dalus so we should be fine.  
  
Suddenly to ships burst from the Mothership.One contains Kraid and Carcinogen.The other a few ChoMen and an unknown package.  
  
Houston-They escaped!  
  
Sybern-Manta start engines on full power.Give us full shields and speed boosters to full.  
  
Burolis-I don't know if we have enough power.  
  
Houston-Just do it.  
  
Manta-We have enough to get on land but thats it.We will have to fuel up there.Besides we can rest.  
  
Suddenly the earth starts to shake and the Mothership starts to explode.The Rebelknife shoots off from the circle of Mor and fibnally breaks out of the water.The raise a few feet from the water then crash hard to the ground in a patch of trees.Suddenly a largecloud appears over the ocean.Then a rush of Lava appears on the top covering most of the ocean.This forms a large land mass.The Rebelknife is now upside down.  
  
Sybern-Manta and Burolis try and flip us over.Houston wanna check on Luke?  
  
On a small platuea overlooking to once large Mor ocean the rebelknife is still on its side.  
  
Manta-I have an idea.  
  
Manta pulls down a communictaor and begins to talk to Houston.  
  
Houston-Okay I'll tell them.  
  
Burolis-Whats going on?  
  
Manta-I am gonna blast the ship out.You buckle down and pump the energy all into the shields.  
  
Burolis-Gotcha!  
  
Manta crawls through a small window and stands behind the rebelknife.He plants his hands onto the rear and shoots a blast of energy into it.While the rebelknife is in mid air he sends two more blasts flipping it right side up.As soon as it lands he crawls back in and begins to repair the ship.  
  
Med Room.  
  
Sarius sits next to Luke when Houston and Sybern come in.  
  
Sybern-I don't think we have been formerly introduced.I am Sybern.  
  
Sarius-I am Sarius.Good to meet you.You fight well.  
  
Sybern-Thank you.  
  
Luke-How about me don't I fight well?  
  
Luke picked his head up and yelled.  
  
Sarius-Huh?Your awake?I thought you lost too much blood....and.....  
  
Luke-I'm fine.But my leg is pretty torn up.  
  
Houston-We can fix that.  
  
Houston pulls out a metal knee brace and begins to lock it on to Luke.  
  
Luke-I think I might need a bit more than that.  
  
Houston-Its a cyber brace. Its gonna heal ya and let you walk.  
  
Sybern-But you did lose alot of blood so your gonna have ta rest.  
  
Luke-No.Its okay.I gotta help Burolis and Manta fix the ship.  
  
Luke hops onto a wheelchair and speeds away.  
  
Sarius-Wait!Your weak!  
  
Sarius begins to chase after Luke down the hall.  
  
Houston-I think we should look for some sign of life around here.  
  
Sybern-Sure but how?We don't have any means of transportation!  
  
Houston-We're gonna have to walk.  
  
Sybern-Walk?  
  
Houston-Lets get going!  
  
The two leaders walk out of the ship and start to make there way to a large forest.  
  
In a forest few yards away from the Ocean of Mor.  
  
Houston-We have been walking for hours!  
  
Sybern-I know!Looks like we might have to go back and see if they can get the shi[ running somehow WITHOUT fuel.  
  
Houston-Wait.Listen.  
  
They stand still then listen.A low hum begins and then gets gradually louder.A rush of wind overhead blows by and they begin to run after the casue.  
  
Sybern-Chozo attack fleet!  
  
The two warriors dash into an open feild and see a small village under attack.  
  
Houston-The cowards.They attack a small defensless village!  
  
Sybern-But why are they attacking that small village?And look!The village is still standing!  
  
Suddenly a large Chozo battleships floats above.Armored tanks roll in from the sides.  
  
Sybern-Uh oh.I think we should try and help.  
  
Houston-Are you nuts?!I agree it is unfortunate but we will get killed!  
  
Sybern-C'Mon!  
  
Sybern grabs Houston and htye dash to the small village.  
  
Sybern and Houston have just arrived atb a small village underattack.They run to a large building and talk to the leader.  
  
Leader-Hello I am Macnus.Welcome to Dor.  
  
Houston-I am Houston leader of the Rebellion and this is my freind Sybern.We ask that you escape with us to the safetly of our ship.  
  
Macnus-Ah warrior.You see our small village and think we will get destroyed no?Watch!  
  
Macnus flicks his fingers and a screen rises.On the screen are scenes of men and women arming large torpedo launchers and blowing away Chozo ships.Other men and women take down the tanks with nothing but handguns.Finally out of certain houses fly mech bikes armed to the teeth with lasers and shields.  
  
Houston-Amazing.  
  
Sybern-Incredible.  
  
Suddenly all of the True Chozoz ships and fighters retreat.  
  
Macnus-We will not be able to stand another attack.We will help you.We have many many fighter bikes and one large ships then can hold them all.  
  
Houston-Then come now with us now.  
  
Macnus-I cannot.I am get the non fighters safely away.  
  
Sybern-Here.As soon as your ready get in touch with us.We will tell you where and you meet us.  
  
Sybern hands Macnus a small comm unit.  
  
Macnus-Thank ye.Now take two fighter bikes and return to your ship.I will send along some of my men to bring supplies and help fix the ship.  
  
Houston-Many thanks.  
  
Houston and Sybern board the bikes and fly to the Rebelknife with two of Macnus men.  
  
*** And the following are the first posts I did when working together with DarkPanda ***  
  
The Battle on Scylla  
Luke and Sarius  
Dark Panda and Mr. Quartz and Delta  
  
Luke entered the hangar bay, Sarius close by. The room was packed, wall to wall by creatures of all sorts. From colors of blue to orange, sizes from short and skinny to large and fat. Females, males, and other genders that only baffled Luke. He had never seen such a collection of races on his homeworld. Some races he didn't even recognize. He felt as if he had just won the lottery. He couldn't help but smile, seeing the large numbers his request put out.  
  
He calmly strolled on to the podium before the crowd, and looked around him once again, this time more formally. Then, with a resounding click that echoed off the cement walls, he turned on the microphone. Luke's body was flushed with hope and despair at once... he didn't know what to feel. But when he began to speak, his mind became clear, as if magically.   
  
"Humans. Lizardbacks. Dorians. Dlotorises. Slimes. Psions. Chozos. It does not matter your race, or your origin. As of now, there is no separation between us. We are all one. How ironic it is that I left this planet, hoping to create the ultimate ship and leave my pain. And now, I come back, back into the welcoming arms of pain I have forgotten, to create the perfect revolution. This is the last place I would have pictured myself a few months ago. But here I am. My friends, we are Scylla's final hope. We may have lost our world, but by no means does that mean we can't get it back. I beleive you all know that in the other rebel bases around this world, people have been standing up for themselves, and fighting back the Chozo. These resisters have been losing ground. Powerful bounty hunters.. the names Reba Fett and Ravenloft may sound familiar to you. They have been fighting for your freedom since they arrived. But they are becoming hindered, and there force is relatively small compared to that of the Chozo. We have been looking in the final place for warriors... we have been looking in your hearts... your souls to find the bravery and rage that can turn the common man into a deadly bounty hunter. And now, I see that we have those warriors ahead of us. Oh, yes, they outnumber us. By thousands, in the end. But, we are smarter than them, and we are in home turf. You may not realize it yet, but we have home field advantage.   
  
As for the plans of the battle, I will tell you this. Our first battle may be the most important in the war. If we lose this, then the Chozo will gain a nearly uncatchable lead on us which will lead to the end of our 'puny' resistance. What we must concentrate on is the Central Chozo Station, located about ninety miles north of here. That station is the main land base of the Chozo. Destroying it will put a huge dent in the takeover. Letting it go will result only in their spread.   
  
When attacking this mighty battle station, we will separate into three groups. Make no mistake- outside of this underground facility, Chozo outposts are surrounding us. We aren't going to just run in and run out. We will have to split up.   
  
The first party will be lead by me. I will guide us along the Chozo border, and we will find a place suitable to attack in order to escape our prison. While we are concentrating on this, group number two, lead by my friend Samus here, will head for Central Station and draw its forces away. Hopefully, the foolish Chozo won't suspect that we have a trump card in our sleeve, better worded, group number three. After drawing their fire, group number three, lead by my uncle, Mellastite Allamandus, will begin the raid on Central Station. Any other fighters that complete their missions and are in capable condition are expected to head for Central and help with the attack. Your positions on forces are posted on the east wall. We have no time to make changes. Scramble for take off will begin in ten minutes. Please assemble yourself immediately."  
  
  
Just then, the ShadowFax made its landing in the center of the hangar. The crowd gasped as the mighty ship landed.   
Dark strolled into the hangar. Apparantly, the Scylla Resistance was a bustle with action. People were hurrying back and forth, doing things that he could not make out. It was obvious that all creatures and species had different rituals to prepare for uncertain doom. He saw a furry creature in the corner bobbing his head low, and rising every once and again to mutter a few words and drink from a strange vial. In the middle of the room, a lizard cocked his gun, then uncocked, then cocked, then uncocked.. the lizard looked almost confused by the contraption.  
  
Finally, Dark saw what he was looking for. Luke Allimdandus, whose just addressed the entire underground city hours ago, was answering the questions of a long line of creatures. Dark Panda silently crossed his heart, and then bustled through the crowds, and after being called some names, came before the tired looking Luke.  
  
ÒSir.Ó Luke said, in a stern voice. ÒI would appreciate it if you would wait your turn.Ó  
  
ÒNo.. you donÕt understand. My name is Dark Panda...Ó He said, catching his breath. ÒI am a warrior... and I failed to make it to the meeting, due to matters which I can not explain in the time given. I hear you are in direct connection with Houston Barrimonde. I am interested in the Rebellion, but I am not ready to tie myself into that.. yet. First, I would like to join your resistance, and perhaps, ultimately join your rebellion. I carry a motley bunch with me... a lizard... a space pirate.. reformed of course.. and a high class ship. I feel that since I have come here to help, I might as well join the best bet for the hope of Scylla. If you accept, Luke, my services are in...Ó  
  
ÒSpeak no more, Dark. I hear your cry, and I let you join in all liberties of your own. You sound rather paranoid, my friend.Ó  
  
ÒWell, I am, I guess.Ó  
  
ÒPlease. Relax. YouÕre in good company. If you are as good a character as your speech seems to imply, I think you will be able to take care of yourself well. Since you have your own ship and crew, you may take the ranks of the elite force. Take a lookie at the bulletin boards on the east wall and pick the crew you would like to go with. Then, just show up. Now, please, if you donÕt mind, I must finish my business here.Ó  
  
ÓAs you wish.. thank you, my friend.Ó  
  
With that, Dark strolled over to the bulletin boards jauntly. He took a glance up and down and examined the three parties. Then, he took a deep breath, and decided on the exact one he wanted to do...  
  
ÒI just donÕt get it, slime.Ó Slarv cried.  
  
ÒWhaaaaaaat is the matter, Slaaaaaarv?Ó The Slime said, itÕs liquid vocals making the crude gargling sound of its lore.  
  
ÒThis Plasma Slicer lent to me by the good Luke Allimandus.Ó Slarv cocked and uncocked the gun again. He noticed a dark figure across the room was staring at him contently. ÒI have never been good with weapons or warcraft...Ó  
  
ÒTrueeeeeÓ The Slime muttered. ÒBuuuut, yoooou stillll have youuuuuur tele-powers...Ó  
  
ÒBut how much good does that do me in a flying ship, or a speedy mini-tank, which I have no recall of? Not much. I hate to say it, but I donÕt think my powers are good enough to carry away an assailing Chozo mothership!Ó  
  
Slarv was a lizard-species from a planet not far off. His race was blessed with unkempt Psycic-Tele-Powers due to a more powerful brain. But, while the species were powerful, it took many years of training to release the full potential of these powers. Slarv was one of these trainers, and in relation to some of the greater tele-warriors of years past, he was merely a beginner.  
  
ÒThis is a fragging piece of work!Ó Slarv grumbled at the Plasma Slicer, smacking it like a child who had done something wrong. He continued to stare at it in confusion for a couple minutes.   
The computers roared, lights flashed, and sirens flared. The undergroundÕs universal speaker was blaring: ÒALL RESISTANCE FIGHTERS! SCRAMBLE! SCRAMBLE! THE SCRAMBLE HAS BEGUN! WE ARE APPROACHING BATTLE! SCRAMBLE! SCRAMBLE!Ó  
  
The warriors in the hangar knew it was coming. The show was a little obsene, considering that it wasnÕt really a scramble, but an initial take-off. But, the urgency of the message matched the importance of the mission. And in a hurry, all of the creatures within the hangar were in their ships or armed, and in their groups.  
  
ÒCOUNTDOWN TO TAKE-OFF.. 20.. 19.. 18.. 17.. 16..Ó  
  
Engines started, flames fumed, smoke brissled. The fumes of war had began to fill up the room. The fury and tension in the room could almost be felt from one warrior to another, like a soft breeze on a hot summer day. Many gripped their controls so hard that their knuckles nearly bled. They had waited for this day for a long time... this was the day of revenge, when at long last the attackers would become the defenders. Some didnÕt care if they were bound to fail and burn... all they wanted was to take down some of the enemy with them.   
  
And that could make all the difference...  
  
  
Houston flicked off the switch on his HoloVid, and turned to Manta. The mutant looked somehow different... Houston couldnÕt help but notice that some of his features had become changed, greatly more so than not. He appeared to be proportionally incorrect, and his body still twitched savagly from time to time.   
  
Houston felt a wave of guilt come over him. If Manta was going to die because of his blast of gamma rays, he didnÕt think he could live with it. He caught his breath as he noticed he was sweating profusely... his hands had no grip to them, and his mouth was dry. Houston had just about worried himself away on MantaÕs behalf. He looked the mutant up and down once again... again, he examined his wretched features, now more gruesome than before. The parts of him that looked more Chozo like remained unchanged.. but those savage parts that looked more like pieces of more savage creatures now looked distorted and cruel. Manta was breathing heavily... or at least, inhaling and exhaling heavily, for Houston could tell not were the air entered from.  
  
His mind than switched to Luke and his resistance. Luke sounded confidant over the VidPhone, but Houston knew him better than many, and he was worried. He though what was true... many of the fighters for the resistance were just out to get a few last shots in before their final hurrah.  
  
Houston than shook his head, trying to throw all evil thoughts from his mind. It was time to head back to Charybdis... there was probably some Chozo left to fry on the war ravaged planet.  
  
HoustonÕs landing in Rogell was smooth. Indeed, the once beautiful capital, which had been attacked so harshly by the Chozo earlier, was now scarred with rubble and disaster. Indeed, a person gone for months who came for a repeat visit would not recognize his surrounding. It looked somehow barren, and desolate... hopeless. But the Chozo had nearly withdrawn from Rogell. That didnÕt mean for a second, though, that all was well in the world.  
  
Houston made his way to the capital. For the first time in his life, Houston was sure of what he had to do next. It was time to pick a bone with the so called government.. they had a lot to explain. Since the war began months ago, the government had nearly crumbled. The Military had become nearly completely useless, explaining why they had to pull out the guilds to do the dirty work. After all Houston had done for Charybdis, and, in fact for what every guild member who was out there risking their butts for the sake of Messina, he decided they deserved a few answers.  
  
When Houston arrived at the govermental head office, he was surprised to see it unguarded and easy to access. After all that had occured, it was a strange thought that the capital of the world would be left unchecked for. Houston entered, and walked down the halls. Not a soul could be found. He went in from room to room, into places that were rarely seen by any men living. He searched every room of the capital. After finding nothing, he returned to his ship, completely bewildered.   
  
What or who had happened to the capital? Houston was walking to his ship when he suddenly stiffened to attention. He looked upon the horizon of the once proud city of Rogell.. dusk was nearing, and little could be seen. But that was precisely the problem.. nothing could be seen. Not a light in all Rogell was on and shining. House lights and street lights and skylights.. nothing. Houston stood, dazed.  
  
He was awakened, startled, by a blast that came right to his feet. He whirlled around to meet the source. He peered, but he could not see. A voice came to answer his thought. ÒOld gaffer! Give up! IÕve got you covered!Ó   
  
Houston slowly lifted his arm cannon, preparing for some new Chozo hybrid to jump from the rubble. But, to his surprise, a human being came stuttering forth. ÒI know who you are...Ó the voice called to him. ÒYouÕre that leader of the rebellion.. going trying to open up the doors for the Chozo, are you! IÕll show you a thing or two.Ó   
  
Another blast was sent towards the stunned Houston. He fell backwards. The beam was low powered, relatively, but Houston was caught off guard anyhow. He now rose to his feet and kept his arm cannon pointed sturdely towards his assailant.  
  
ÓName yourself and your occupance and reasons for being here, before I blast that puny little weapon away and the hand that carries it.Ó  
  
ÒMy name of no good to you.. my occupance is in the resistance... the resistance against the Chozo.. and you have helped them, old man!Ó  
  
ÒOn the contrary, my mistaken fellow! IÕve been trying my best to stop it!Ó  
  
ÓDonÕt bother using tricks on me! I know all too well!Ó  
  
ÒWhat is the meaning of this? Is this some kind of joke?Ó  
  
ÓNo joke.. weÕve been searching for you, gaffer!Ó  
  
Suddenly, a third voice jumped into the fray. ÒLet him be, moron!Ó It was followed by three short blasts, and the figure which was threatening Houston fell to the earth, black marks smoking from his backside.  
  
A figure followed up, previously unseen behind the rubble. There was no mistaking it.. it was a True Chozo. It was obviously a Choman, because it spoke quite fluently, although it was still dimwitted.  
  
ÒSorry about that little shortcoming.Ó The Chozo bird muttered. ÒYou otta be lucky the others were so busy pillaging that I had the opportunity to come and see that the capital was still taken over.Ó  
  
Houston stood, completely baffled. Why was a Chozo speaking to him as if he were the friend? ÒIÕm sorry, Chozo.Ó He said, insincerly. He acted as if he was very confused. ÒWould you please.. run by my the events that have happened here for the past few days? My memory is boggled.Ó  
  
The Chozo stood to attention, dim-wittedly. ÒYes, sir! The other day, we ended the attack on Rogell. It is completely taken over. We are in the meantime pillaging.Ó  
  
ÒHow exactly did we take over Rogell, again?Ó  
  
ÒRemember, sir? We turned the people against themselves, as well against us. We used you as a decoy.. your clone at least.. we put you out, and you did some nasty things, like assassinating the ambassador and senator Diorly... and by pillaging a couple warehouses of your own... the people were so confused. How could the leader of the rebellion be putting their planet to waste? They divided.. some though that a government consiparacy was amuk, others though that everything was right, and it was all our trickery. They battled each other in the end.. and we got the longer side of the thread. Now, they still fight amongst themselves, and we have snuck in and taken control!Ó  
  
ÒDear god!Ó Houston choked back. They had put his clone on Charybdis to wreak total havoc, and it had caused the population of Rogell to completely turnbuckle.. it was no doubt affecting other regions of the world, too. ÒWhat has become of the government?Ó  
  
ÓMost of them went home.. they are in the middle of the battle too...Ó  
  
Houston took in a deep breath. ÒWell, thank you soldier. I must be off... to do some more pillaging!Ó Houston scurried off into his ship as fast as he could, and started it... he slowly drifted into the sky.  
  
Houston knew it was time to check up on Manta, so he went down the drab metal halls to the lounge where he had left Manta to lay... but this was in bad fortunes. For as he approached the door to open and enter... he heard savage growling. He knew it.. it was a more fierce Manta in there.. he was alive, but he was fading from starvation quickly, because he had no energy for weeks, and he became rabid with hunger... and now more deadly since the mutation. He would eat anything he could find, including Houston.  
  
He listened carefully to Manta as he stumbled around the room. Then, he cringed in horror. The creature began smelling... sniffing into the air. He heard him grunt, and then he heard steps towards his door...  
  
The creature has just tracked down some fresh meat... Houston was to be the main course.  
  
*** The following are the first posts by an author EMF 99 ***  
  
Oralus looked upon the most magnificent city Iglacia,on Charybdis.But he had no time to enjoy the scenory ,he was there on business. He wouldn't have enjoyed it even if he weren't "on the job", he wasn't the kind that went to places to enjoy the sights,he traveled on business ,and he did get around a lot.  
He was at Iglacia to collect for a client.He asked his minituare computer "What time is it?".  
"Eight fifty-five." It responded with a robotic voice.  
"Time to go." He said, as he got up and out of his hovercraft.He started toward one of the domes for which Iglacia is considered so grand and beautiful. A rich merchant lived in this dome and Oralus had been hired to collect a high amount of money owed to his client, which had been refused to be payed.He entered the dome.  
As he walked through the yard he was suddenly stopped by a force field,obviously the alarm. "State your name and your business." Commanded a robotic voice.  
" My name is Oralus and I wish to speak to Grendal the merchant. I want to discuss a deal with him." Responded Oralus.  
" What deal ?" Asked a middle-aged voice.  
" Your life for one-hundred-thousand dollars." Said Oralus cassually.  
" Name: Oralus Clayborne. Occupation: Intergalactic Bounty Hunter. Age: 22." said the alarm "Must destroy. " It said as Grendal laughed.   
There was ussually very little violence on Iglacia, but in these times of war between the Chozo and humans almost everyone carried some kind of laser gun,including Oralus.  
Suddenly the six orbs around the building lit up with a radiant blue light. Oralus knew what these were, and he cursed himself for not being ready, they were part of the alarm, they were Nexus pods and they could kill a person with one combined shot from all six orbs.  
  
Oralus knew he had only a matter of seconds before the pods were fully charged and ready to fire the blue lightning which would kill him.But with his quick reflexes he took out his laser gun and shot the nearest Nexus pod two times and destroyed it.But the other five pods were completely energized and shot the first shot which hit Oralus' laser gun and disintigrated it. Oralus thought fast about what to do as the pods reenergized. Then he realized that the grass which he stood on was not real grass, but instead it was a rubber mat in the form of grass which Grendal had put in so that the ground on his property would not be damaged if he ever used the Nexus pods. Oralus grabbed his heat lamp quickly and broke off the top as another electric ray barely missed his head. As soon as he broke the top off, the heat lamp leaked out the fire which it used as fuel to keep people warm. The heat lamp was no longer a heat lamp but instead a blow torch, which Oralus used to cut out a piece of rubber grass.   
When the next shot came it didn't hit flesh as it should have but instead it hit fake rubber grass. This new diversion let Oralus get close enough to the second pod, which enabled him to destroy it by plunging his new blow torch deep into it.   
With no weapons left and his piece of rubber grass quickly melting he thought of what he could do next. Then it hit him he quickly jumped into action. He waited until the pods were almost fully energized then he ran right through the Nexus pods and threw himself on the ground just as the pods let out their final bolt of electricity. The four pods destroyed themselves.  
Oralus got back up walked slowly past the smoldering fire which was the remains of one of the Nexus pods toward the building were Grendal stood awestruck and trembling as he watched his pods destroyed on the rubber grass which had been his downfall.  
Then he watched as Oralus approached and let out a terrified cry "Please don't kill me!" he pleaded.  
Oralus now got to see Grendal clearly. He was a True Chozo, probably a spy. "If you want to keep your head you will give me one-hundred-thousand credits."responded Oralus.  
"Yes,yes ofcourse,"said Grendal"I'll be right back." He went into his home and came out with the money, which he handed to Oralus.  
Oralus put the money away and then leaped on the True Chozo. Pinning him on the ground he began to choke him.  
"You said you wouldn't kill me!" gasped out the True Chozo.  
"No, I said I would let you keep your head. And I did."said Oralus as Grendal died.Oralus then got up and left without anyone knowing he had been there and said "One less Chozo in the world."  
  
As Oralus entered the bar all the young women stared at him with looks of admiration and desire. Oralus was after all a well built young man in his early twenties, it was only natural for women to like him. But only seldom did he pay any attention to them and when he did it was just to have a little fun with them, sometimes this got him in trouble so he didn't do it often.All woman who met him desired his light brown hair, his light brown eyes, and his 6 foot five inch muscular body. A twenty year old woman came up to him and hugged him. Completely surprising Oralus. And then she kissed him right on the lips. Oralus became red in the face, grabbed her arms and pulled her roughly away from himself. Not knowing what he was doing he squeezed her arms as he saw her face contort with pain.  
"Stop it, you're hurting me!"She shouted at him. "Let go of me you stupid ox." and then she slapped him.  
Oralus became calm again. "Don't ever do that to me again." He said.  
"Oh shut up!" She snapped back at him as she rubbed her red arms. "There's someone waiting for you at that table, he said that you were supposed to meet him here."  
"Thanks.'' He said. "We'll talk later."  
"Oh, forget it!" She returned.  
Oralus walked away from the barmaid and went toward a table where a hooded figure sat (his employer). He sat down beside the man.  
"Do you have the money?" asked the man.  
"Yes, but I had to kill the Chozo."he responded as he handed him the money.  
"You what!" Shouted the man at Oralus as he stood up from his chair.  
Suddenly every person in the bar looked at their table. The whole bar became silent as every eye stared at the hooded figure.  
"What are you all staring at!" Shouted Oralus. As quickly as the silence had come it left. The man sat back down.  
"That wasn't part of the deal." He said. "You weren't supposed to kill the Chozo."  
"You never said I couldn't." He returned "Besides whats one Chozo less."  
"I guess you're right." Said the man."Anyways," he continued "I have another job for you. I want you to join the alliance against the True Chozo. I want you to befriend Captain Houston and any others you meet there and I want you to kill them. Do you understand?"  
"Wha-oh, yes, but why I thought that you were for that campaign, not against it, Senator Lang?"  
"Do not question me, and more importantly do not mention my name in public!" He snapped back at Oralus."Besides he said I will pay you generously for your services." He said as he handed Oralus his fifty-thousand credits for his last job. "You know I am a rich man Oralus, I'll pay you four times this amount if you do this little job for me. Well will you do it?"  
There was a pause and then Oralus said, "But ofcourse Sen--." The Senator stared hard at him, and Oralus said, "I mean sir." correcting himself.  
  
Oralus had just walked out of tavern in which he had sealed off a week ago, a deal that may have sealed the fate of all mankind, but then Oralus didn't care at all for mankind, because the way Oralus saw it, mankind didn't care for him. He had just recieved a response from Houston Barrimonde for his letter to join the Resistance. He had just answered back saying that he would be in Dalus as soon as possible.   
He was headed at this moment toward the local weapons shop in town to buy himself a new laser gun and some extra equipment. He entered the shop and walked up to the counter where the shopkeeper was counting the credits he had made off his last customer.  
"May I help you?" Came his raspy old voice. "We have laser guns, nuclear detonators, and geothermic weather controls, but only for a one mile radius. Oh, and our laser guns are only F-50's, the lowest power, and we don't have any instalations, like a freeze ray adapter. We have almost anything that your heart could possibly desire for warfare."  
"That's fine I'll take one your laser guns loaded, with two reserve light crystal compartments incase the one in the gun runs out of power, and give me a couple of nuclear detonators. Will they explode on contact or are they timed?" Said Oralus.  
"I'm very sorry sir but they explode on contact." Replied the merchant.  
"Fine I'm in a hurry, how much will it be?"he asked the merchant.  
The merchant had a smug look on his face," One-hundred and fifty credits."  
Oralus became enraged, "One-hundred credits for those pieces of junk," he said as he grabbed the shopkeeper by the collar of his shirt, "or else!" he threatened.  
The merchant became frightened, "Very well a hundred credits it is."  
Oralus released and payed the man. Then he took his things and left without saying a word. He had promised Houston that he would leave that very day and so he went towards the Travel Shuttle Station. He was going to board a shuttle that would get him to the Mor ocean in one hour. He walked toward the teller.  
"Where to beautiful?" She asked.  
"The Mor Ocean, please." He said blushing.  
"Normally it would be seventy-five credits, but for you fifty." She said giggling.  
Oralus paid the girl the fifty credits and said "Thanks georgeous." and smiled at her.  
The girl blushed, "That Shuttle is leaving in five minutes. Just go up those stairs and to your left."  
Oralus started to leave then all of a sudden he saw the merchant and a large man coming toward him. The merchant was saying something about being swindled by Oralus and the large man was saying something about killing Oralus.  
Oralus reacted quickly he ran towards the Shuttle and got on as it was about to leave. But the big man got in after him and was charging towards him. When he reached Oralus he rammed his head into Oralus' stomach knocking all the wind out of Oralus' body. Oralus was out of wind, when he recieved the a powerful blow to his head, but he recovered quickly he lifted up his foot to the mans chest and pushed him away with all his strength. He then lifted up his laser gun and pointed towards the man's chest, but didn't shoot. After all he didn't want to become a murderer with so many people staring at him, so many witnesses. So instead he lowered his laser to the mans knee and shot it.  
  
The man screamed in pain as Oralus grabbed him opened the moving Shuttle's door and jumped out. They fell well outside the city limits, in the vast deserted fields. Oralus took out a bandage and started tending to the surprised mans wound.  
"Aren't you going to kill me?" Asked the awestruck man.  
"Nope." Said Oralus.  
"But why? I mean I attacked you back there I thought you would be furious, I thought you would kill me right here and now."  
"Would you like me to kill you?" He asked mockingly.  
"No."Said the man still dazed.  
"Okay then."said Oralus as he took out a container. "This should keep you alive until the sentries start looking for you. It's food. You know I shouldn't even be doing this, I might need this, but I can't just leave you here to die now can I. I'd be charged for murder. So take this food and tell me how I can get to Mor this very day without dieing in the process. I hope you know that you might have just cost me two-hundred-thousand credits!" Oralus was red in the face.   
"I--I'm sorry. I want to make it up to you. Let me travel with you to Mor, I can get us transportation. Anyways when I attacked you I was only doing my job, see I work for that man I take care of any problems he usually has. That is until you came along. Please, let me go with you. You know, I've always wanted to go out into the world in search of adventure."The big man pleaded with Oralus.  
"How old are you?" asked Oralus.  
"Twenty." The man responded.  
"No, forget it, you would only slow me down."  
"No I wouldn't I could help you get to Mor. I can help you there to. I can get us transportation and that way I wouldn't slow you down. Anyways I heal quickly." Said the man with a hurt look on his face.  
"What's your name?" Asked Oralus.  
"Oh my name? My name is Ergo Mordigan Olsak but my friends call me Emo for short."  
"Well I'm not your friend, after all I just shot you in the knee with my laser. So I'll just call you Ergo." There was a long pause as Oralus looked at the young man. He finally said, "Do you think you can walk Ergo. That way we could get going and get that transportation you were talking about."  
"Oh yeah, no problem. Oh by the way I didn't catch your name or why we are going to Mor." Ergo was still dazed from all the events which had happened in the last ten minutes.  
"My name is Oralus Clayborne. I don't have any friends to call me differently. In answer to your second question we are going to Mor, to the city of Dalus to be more specific, to join Houston Barrimonde's Rebellion. So where and what is this transportation you spoke of." He said as if what he had just said was not important.  
"We're going to join a rebellion?!" He asked excitedly. "Wow I've never been in a rebellion before. I guess that being a in rebellion would make us rebels, wouldn't--"  
"Could you shut up for just one minute!" Oralus interupted him. Ergo instantly became quiet."Now that you're finally listening to me where is the transportation you promised?"  
"Oh, it's in the mayor's house on the other side of the city." Said Ergo. "I can get us in through the sewers. But they do have some gaurds protecting the entrance through the sewers, and we'll have to get by them. I don't know if they have anymore security systems beyond that point. But what I do know is that beyond the hall which those gaurds are protecting there is a ship called the Chozo Slayer. Supposedly it and many others like it were made by the intergalactic government to kill the all the Chozo in this galaxy (not just the Chomen but all Chozo) and many others, but they have a million of these ships I don't think they'll miss one."  
"If you're ready, I'm ready." Said Oralus as they headed to the other side of the city, to the mayor's palace."  
  
"Which way?" asked Oralus. He and Ergo were in a secluded alley behind the shop in which Oralus had bought his new laser. Ergo had managed to get them past the shopkeeper by dressing Oralus up as a woman. Oralus hadn't minded, after all he would do anything to forward his own purpose.  
"Down." he signaled toward a manhole. "From there we head south to another manhole that is protected by two guards. This manhole connects to an open cell in the mayor's main dungeon. From there we head west through the dungeons until we get to a human sized hole at the end of the dungeons. Beyond that is the Chozo Slayer number 43. Last time I came down here with one of my friends there were no more security devices beyond that point. But I don't know if they might have installed any new security devices or put in more gaurds after we escaped from them."  
"What do you mean you escaped from them, Ergo? I thought that you had come here undetected."  
"Oh no, Oralus we were almost killed for trespassing. In fact I think that my friend and I are still wanted men. We just don't go out that much. So we haven't been captured yet." There was a pause as both men summoned up their courage. "Are you ready to go?" Asked Ergo.  
"Sure." Replied Oralus.  
They descended down into the darkness of the sewers. They could not afford to use a heat lamp to light their way, the light might give them away to their enemies. But having no light didn't matter because they soon saw some light coming from around a bend. The two men headed toward the light slowly because Ergo had not completely recovered from his wound. When they came to the turn they cautiosly saw what was around the bend. What they saw surprised not only Oralus, but also Ergo. Instead of there being two men with laser guns, there were four men with proton armor and arm cannons.  
"I guess that they did take more precautions after I left. What now? Ergo looked at Oralus puzzled about what to do with this new obstacle that lay in their way.  
"Give me something to throw." Ergo handed him an old can. "When I throw this I want you to stay against the wall and don't move until I tell you to then jump on a guy and hit him behind the the head as hard as you can. But first you have to pull the helmet off. You do understand don't you?"  
"Yeah, sure I do Oralus." He said  
"Okay. Get ready." Oralus threw the can down as hard as he could. As he had expected two of the four gaurds came running down in their direction.   
"It's probably a cat." One of them muttered. The two gaurds couldn't see Oralus in the darkness so they turned back thinking it had been a cat.  
"Now." they heard a mans voice, and before they completely knew what was happening they were both unconscious. Oralus looked at the man that Ergo attacked and said, "I think you killed him." Ergo smiled."Any ways put that mans suit on. We don't have much time."  
The two men hurried putting on the proton armor and were soon ready to keep going.  
"Leave your stuff here until we get past those guards." Said Oralus. The two men started walking down towards the other two gaurds with their newly found armor. They set their arm cannons on stun.  
As they reached the other two men, one of the gaurds said, "So was ita c--" The man never got to finish his question. The two gaurds now lay unconcious also.  
Oralus and Ergo looked into the dungeon and with uncertainess, they stepped in.  
  
Oralus and Ergo ran past the first cell block.they had already gone back to get their equipment. Now, they thought, they were ready for anything.  
"This is to easy." said Oralus "Something is not right here."  
"Stop worrying Oralus. Everything is fine." Ergo reasured him. "Before you know it, we'll be out of here with a new fully operational warship.''  
Suddenly, as if what Ergo had said had, triggered the alarm, they heard a siren and a robotic voice screaming out "Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" Ergo had accidentally made the alarm go off when he stepped past an invisible detection ray. Then as suddenly as it had begun it stopped.  
"Everything is going to be fine, he says." Oralus mocked.He was about to say something else but then they heard a noise, like nails scratching a one of those ancient chalkboards they used to use in schools, off in the distance. "Let's just get to that ship and get out of here!" Both men broke into a frantic run. They suddenly saw the hole in the wall that Ergo had described.   
But they were stopped short by a giant Cybernid. ( A Cybernid is a robot in the shape of a spider.) The Cybernid began searching, with the lights installed in its eyes, for any living creature in the room. Suddenly the light came down upon them. The Cybernid opened it's mouth wide and screamed a horrible shrill scream that paralyzed the two men with fear.   
Oralus was somehow able to overcome his fear. He pointed his arm cannon at the Cybernid's open mouth. "Fire!" He screamed out. His shot hit the exact target, and silenced the creature's scream.   
Suddenly the Cybernid's eyes lit up again but this time it was not a mere light, but a radioactive laser beam that would kill Oralus and Ergo in the next few seconds if they didn't do anything.   
The eyes were about to shoot their deadly laser when a voice intervened and said, "Don't kill them. I want them alive." The eyes of the Cybernid darkened once more as it opened it's mouth again. This time instead of the blood curdling scream they had expected to hear coming out, a net came out entangling them. Then, before they could break free, an electrical shock hit them.  
The last thing they saw before they lost consciousness was the Cybernid creeping towards them.  
  
Oralus woke up on a magnetic strip. He could not move because of his armor. The same armor that had allowed him to enter the dungeon was the armor that now held him prisoner. He heard two voices whispering about him on the room. He heard footsteps and then he saw a man looming menacingly over him.  
"Is this the one?"  
"Yes," he heard another voice "that's the one." His tone of voice had a trace of someone who is annoyed. "The other one has been here before. In fact we've put a price on his head. Every bounty hunter and marshal in town is after him. It's a good thing he came to us. Now we won't have to pay anyone to find him."  
"I thought that there had been another." He stared at Ergo, who was still asleep, with intense curiousity.  
"Yes, there is another, but this one will have to tell us where he is. If he values his life that is." He started to walk over to the man. "I wonder what he's doing with this one?" He motioned to Oralus. "I found out a little bit about him in the cities computer. His name is Oralus Clayborne and he is a bounty hunter. What I don't understand id what he's doing here with Ergo." Obviously the man knew him."Good morning Oralus it really is good to see you awake. I'm Hydos the mayor's adviser and this is my employee Will Fenternon." He motioned to the other man. "Like you, he is also a bounty hunter. Well, now that the introductions are behind us we can get onto more important things, like why you're here with Ergo. And why you hurt four of my best men?"  
"Why the hell should I tell you why I'm here" Snapped Oralus, who had been quiet all through Hydos' conversation with Will.  
"Because if you don't tell me I'm going to have to drag it out of you by rather unpleasent means." Hydos had a menacing grin on his face as he pressed a button next to the magnetic strip, which held Oralus captive. Oralus let out a long groan of pain until Hydos pressed the button again and stopped the electrical surge that had been the cause of his pain. "Now will you tell me?" Said Hydos annoyed.  
Oralus didn't respond.  
"Okay. Maybe you'll change your mind when I return. After a couple more shocks." He got up and walked over to Will "Give him a shock every fifteen minutes until I return." He then walked out the door and left Oralus and Ergo with Will.  
A woman walked in after Hydos had left. "Will you be needing anything master Will?"  
"Yes I think I'll have a pitcher of water and you." he responded.  
The woman began to blush "I'll bring you a pitcher full of water in a minute sir." The woman caught sight of Ergo "Who is that sir?" She asked.  
"Just a prisoner." He said casually.  
The woman stared at Ergo a while longer than said. "I"ll bring your water in a minute sir and I'll also bring you a special treat." She walked out the door with the man's longing eyes following her.  
"Oh this is my lucky day!" Said Will "Do you know how long I've been trying to get her attention?" He was talking to Oralus now. "I might just forget my orders, to go out and have some fun with her."  
The woman entered the room again as Will quieted down. She was carrying a pitcher of water. She set the pitcher down as she walked toward will and said, "There's your pitcher of water and here is your reward." She hugged him and pressed her lips to his as she kissed him. Then out of nowhere she grabbed his laser gun lifted it over his neck and struck it down before Will had realized what she was doing.  
The woman rushed over to Ergo turned off his magnetic strip and started to shake him. "Wake up Ergo! Wake up!" Ergo came out of his deep sleep.  
"Glenda is that you?"   
"Yes, Ergo it's me now come on let's go." She started to pull him toward the door, but he pulled himself away. "We have to get to the Chozo Slayer."  
"Wait Glen we have to free Oralus."  
"Oralus? Who's Oralus?" Glenda was truly puzzled.  
"I'm Oralus." He responded.  
"Fine" She said as she turned off the switch that would release him "Okay he's free now let's go."  
  
  
*** The following are the first posts by an author Joshman773 ***  
  
Joshman773  
  
AS I WALKED THROUGH THE CROWDED MARKETPLACE I FELT A   
strange familiarity wash over me. P'raps my father once strolled this road. Mabye he too was lookin for a crew to man his ship. A man selling pulse lasers frowns grimly as I pass. I stick out here. A foreigner am I. I hear a cry-  
"you- the Wolfe, here! I'ss thought youse dead and gone."  
I whirl around. "is it you? you look so changed."the man is a strange one. wearing the tattered robe of a techie, he grins at me with a metal eye. I notice his third arm tucked beneath his jacket. " of whom dost thy speak old one"  
"my, youse caint be jerome wolfe"  
Jerome Wolfe. The name is piercing. My father! This man knew my father!  
Jaime Wolfe led a dreary existence as a young boy.  
After his mother died his older sister Natasha took it upon herself to train him in the arts of war. Jaime went along, but became an engineer. He excelled at school, but was a loner due to the fact that he was the only Wolfe alive not a bounty hunter.  
Jerome Wolfe was proud that that his son could be something other than a bounty hunter, but dissapointed at his lack of enthusiasm for anything in particular.  
On the eve of Jerome's departure, he game Jaime a datacrystal. He declined to say what was on it, but told Jaime to gaurd it well until he found the other half.  
By the time the news of Jerome's death reached Jaime, he was a successful starship engineer. Natasha left shortly thereafter to become a bount hunter.  
When the news of the true chozo threat reached Clinpus 12, Jaime had had enough. He would do what his father had failed at.   
He would be the best of the best.  
He would be a wolf.  
  
This is a dialog between Jaime Wolfe and a 3-armed old techie, who kenw Jaime's father.  
"you knew my father?"  
"so youse is Jaime"  
"yes"  
"I believe I can help you"  
"how???!!"  
"youve got a ship yes?"  
"how else would I get here?"  
"I will accompany you and help you find her."  
"her who"  
"Natasha"  
"SHE LIVES?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"  
"of course"  
"Lets go old man"  
"you never asked my name."  
"you can tell me now."  
"Paul Ulric, pleased to meet you, Wolfe"  
As they board the ship, Ulric whistles.  
"What" says I.  
" a loaner?"  
" I stole 'er"  
"great. take us to Nextima Station, I need to meet my outsystem contact."  
  
(Wolfe picked up quite a few buddies on his trip to Nextima. After finding out about the rebellion and recruiting for it, he head for Dalus where all the others were.)  
  
Make that ? when the other 2 get here.  
Jaime Wolfe docked his spaceship at the main Dalus docking port.  
The stop in the slums had been profitable. The hold now carried 28 battle hungry  
mercenaries and their leaders, the Trogs Shniff and Shnort.  
The Deceber assigned of escorting us to the ship said nothing, but looked at the Mercs in disgust.  
Entering the main observation area, Jaime and Co. were greeted by the Deceber in charge of assisting us against the True Chozo.  
He handed me a data cartridge. "Thiss is the map of Dalus and surrounding ocean. Use it well." I uploaded it into my HUD computer and passed the cartridge to Shniff and Shnort, who did the same. " The evacuation has already begun, but if the warrior Houstons estimates are correct, there will still be 5000 of us left when the True Chozos arive. Good luck, Jaime Wolfe, righteous human."  
  
-The Continuing story of Jaime Wolfe, Bounty Hunter-  
Jaime sat completely engrossed in the captains chair.  
He was hooked up to the real-time main control feedback panel.  
While engaging Chozo ships Jaime had noticed the Rebel Knife dock at the flagship. He had also noticed when the wing section had seperated and fallen into the ring of Mor. He then made a decision.  
The u-agav warp core of his ship gave him limitless acceleration.  
At .45 light the ship would vaporize.  
Jaime decided to test that.  
He set course for the underbelley of the flagship.  
"computer, MAXIMUM ACCELERATION, terminal velocity .4 light."  
in a period of time indescribable (less than planck time) the DeathBlade  
shot through the whole flagship. Critical damage alarms buzzed.  
Jaime grinned. With two huge holes in the flagship's main section, retreat into space was impossible, and better yet, a team of 50 hired ships was already on its way to his position. But he would get there first.  
As the DeathBlade squeezed through the rear hole, Jaime powered up his suit, and slung the Multi-Purpose Assault Cannon over his shoulder.  
  
*** THe following are the first posts by Krynn Tars ***  
  
Krynn spotted the Battle Site where he had spent the last week, and where the body of his best friend lays......"Oooooo I will kill ALL the Chozo! They do not deserve to live."  
The races in my solar system know about the history of the Tarsists. At the End of the Age of Knolege, Space travel became reality. At the same time an Alien race attacked our planet. The Historians of the time were going to call the new era the Age of Space, when we traveled the stars. But the war with the Quarians, a race that lived at the edge of our solar syatem, changed everything. The Engineers went into full production of of War ships and weapons. Training centers opened all over the planet, training the fighter pilots that could out manuver and out shoot the aliens. But in the begining before all that happened, the war seemed hopless for our planet. In history class they teach of a Dragoneski who, with his friends, discovered some remains of an alien fighter craft. Together they became the first Tarsists. With the ability to combine alien technology with Any other technology. After that the war started to turn in our favor, with a mix of friendly and alien technology, we quickly took the advantage. The War was named the War of Survival. And the Historians changed what they were going to call the Age of Space, to the Age of the Tarsists. One never makes war with a tarsist, unless they can be sure to end it quickly. Cause then they get ahold of your tech. and qhange it and use it against you. But of course these Chozo couldn't know all that. "So I will have to TEACH them!" Krynn lands his battered craft in about the same place it took off from. And goes to find and bury his Friend. "Oh yes, they will pay, I swear it!"  
  
Just as she said it would be, it was a private meeting. No one was in the room, and no one was near the Aquarium's door when I entered it. Now unless there was some cameras hidden somewhere, It was completely private.  
He walked into a huge room, with computers and a big Holographic screen in one corner. There was a big Tank of water in the center of the room, He couldn't believe the size of that tank. It must be 15 feet off the floor, and maybe more under the floor. It had to be at least 20 feet in Diameter, and shaped like a square. On one side of the tank there was some computers and equipment attached to the tank. He didn't know what it was used for, but he did know it was important, and not for comfort.  
"Hello," a girls voice came, seemingly, from the equipment next to the tank, "I am Miranda."  
"And I am Krynn." He said, but to someone he couldn't see. He turned around, just to make sure no one was behind him.  
"Krynn, I'm over here." the voice said.  
Krynn turned around. And saw, what looked to be a large black Shark, inside the giant tank of water. Since Krynn doesn't belong to this world, he would have no Idea that It was really a Killer Shark.  
"I am glad you decided to come." she said. Her mouth doesn't move when she talks. But it seems that whenever she talks a beam comes out of her head, and goes to a computer. Of course, a voice synthesizer. A shark doesn't have the speech capabilities of humanoids, so her branch of the race developed the way to communicate with a laser like beam. And with the current Technology level on this planet, her synthesizer allows her to communicate just as well as any other humanoid. And better in some cases. "I'm sorry, but I have to try and keep this short. I have someone back at my hotel who was injured, and I am caring for her."  
"No, it's OK. I have other appointments anyway. Please, sit down."  
Krynn walks over and takes a seat near the tank. "How much are you asking for the workstation."  
"I actually had a reasonable price in mind. But now I think I'll lower it. The workstation and engine parts are free. You may pick up what you like on the way out."  
"I don't understand." Krynn said with suspicion in his voice.  
"It is simple". Said the voice from the synthesizer. "Call it a down payment for future work. In fact, if you need more credits yourself, I can use you immediately. I recently acquired a 20 man fighter ship. It is top of the line to start with and I've already invested considerable expense in upgrading it further. But my agents say you could modify it to make it even faster." Krynn smiled as he saw her direction.  
"So whenever you are free you can start working. Take as long or short as you want to complete the work, and charge me what you feel is a reasonable price. I did a computer analysis of your past known activities and projected that there is only a 3% chance of you trying to cheat me."  
"You don't sound like a Merchant. What's the deal."  
"Let's just say I like you. And what's the matter with trying to help someone in need. Some Merchants care about others you know." she returned  
"..." Krynn couldn't think of anything to say.  
"Well, the longer you wait, the more your friend suffers. You can pick up your workstation outside. And I have also include a full Medical Kit, I though you might need it when I heard about your friend. In addition, I included a corporate requisition card in your name in case you need any other supplies."  
"You are right. I thank you, and I'm sure she would to." He walks over and looks at the Nano-Workstation. It is in good condition, and high quality to. For some reason it doesn't feel right. "I promise to repay you some how for your kindness."  
  
With that he went over and picked up the workstation (It is the size of a computer, like those computers called Towers). He started to ask where the Medical Kit would be, but a door opened and a hooded figure stepped into the room and handed the Kit to him. With that he thanked her again and left.  
"No Krynn, it is you I should be thanking. You could be a big help in finding and rescuing my Uncle." she said after Krynn left the room.  
  
  
After the meeting with Miranda Krynn headed back to the hotel. It wasn't a long walk back, It only took 10 minutes. It is a large city, and could have taken much longer if Miranda's place was in the city any further. No since thinking about nonsence like that.  
He got to his room and put the Work station on the table, then he went into his room (well, it's the girls now) to see if she was alright. "WHAT!" Krynn yelled as he entered the room. "Where is she." Anyone could tell that the bed had been slept in, because the covers were messed up. And some were laying off the opposite side of the bed. Like someone threw the covers off.  
In his panic he went over to the bed. No one here. Then out of the corner of his eye he saw someone. It was her, she is laying on the floor beside the bed, half hidden by the cover. She must have woken up, and saw she was in strange surroundings. Then tried to get up, and collapsed on the floor. "I wonder how long ago it happened."  
He shook his head so he would stop thinking, that's his problem--he thinks to much instead of taking action, then he went over and picked her up and put her back on the bed. He put the Medical kit on the night stand next to the bed, and opened it up. He saw an assortment of things, some he didn't know what they were for, and some he did. He used the medical kit and cleaned her wounds, then he gave her a shot of something called Anti-Biotics. After that their was nothing else he could do but wait. So he went into his room (Johns old room) and went to sleep.   
  
Krynn suddenly awoke to a crashing noise. He jumped out of bed and rushed into the living room. There he saw the girl walking toward the door. "So glad to see that you have woke up, but I don't think you should be up and moving around so soon."  
"Who, who are you." she said in a weak voice.   
"How stupid of me, I am Krynn."  
"And..I...I am Lydia."   
He got closer to her, and then she yelled "Stay back! I am......" She started to collapsed, but Krynn rushed over and caught her first. He picked her up in his arms (seems like this is happening quite often) and carried her back to her room. He laid her down it the bed, and then went back into the living room.  
"Now that I'm up, I might as well modify the Work station." Krynn will have to modify the Workstation a certain way if he wants to be able to use it as a Tarsist tool. Because these Work stations on this planet are configured differently than on his world.  
The rest of the day he spent modifying the Workstation.  
  
With The Nano-Workstation modified, and Lydia recovering, Krynn Went out to repair his ship. The ship is hidden a mile from the city. On the way there he thought about the past few days, and what has happened. How John died, he saved a Space station, found and repaired an alien ship, and helped a Lydia. Not to mention Miranda, the merchant, and how she gave my the Workstation, a Medical kit, and some engine parts all for free. "I will repay her after I repair my ship."  
Krynn spent the next 2 days Repairing, upgrading and intrgrating friendly tech with the alien systems.   
  
"It looks a little different, but it still looks like the enemy ships. I better stay away from friendly aircraft." He said looking over his work.  
"It looks nicer than those mean Chozo's ships though" a voice said from behind.  
Krynn turned around quickly and stared at the girl behind him, It was Lydia. "How did you find me, and why are you out of bed?"  
"I followed you this morning when you got up to come here. And I feel fine, you can't tell me what to do. If I want to get out of bed, I will do it."  
"Humph, what ungratful people this world raises." he says to himself. Then he turns around and go's inside the ship.  
"Hey, where......" she started, but he was already inside the ship. She ran up to the ships door and went in. When she entered she found him messing around in one of the Navigation control panels. "It's rude to turn and walk away from a lady, in the middle of a conversation."  
"It's also rude to yell at the man who saved your life. You could be laying in a bunch of scrap metal, with blood all over your face. And maybe enjoying the company of one of this planets meat eating animals."  
"I.......I'm sorry." she replied lowering her head.  
"It's ok," he hates seeing girls pout, "I wouldn't have left you laying there." he finished. "even if I knew you would be acting like an ungratful little girl." he added under his breath.  
Relieved, Lydia leaned back.   
Krynn and Lydia talked for 15 minutes before they heard a beaping. "Beap, beap, beap..."  
"What is that beaping," Lydia asked.  
"I don't know....." He started, but then he saw a light flashing behind Lydia an leaped up to see what it was. "NO! Someone activated a homing device!"  
"What kind of homing device."   
"The kind the Aliens are going to use to find us, unless we get going." he said jumping into the Cockpit, and turning on all systems.  
The engines start up with a hum, and the control panels light up.  
"Strap yourself in. The chozo could be here anytime."  
"Ok." With that she sat down in the seat next to Krynn and straped in.  
A few craft fly over Krynns ship, heading toward the city.  
"Why did they pass us" she inquired.  
"I don't know, maybe the city is more important than us."  
"Oh no, I just remembered. The city has a sort of cloaking device protecting it. So the aliens can't find it and destroy it easily."  
" Well, that would explain it. We better get out there and fix what we did."  
The ship takes off and heads west, toward the city. In a few minutes they can see the city, and the battle that is raging over it. Krynn turns the weapon systems to max output, and prepares to engage the enemy. The Chozo have 10 ships, and the city has 13 ships fighting for it, then there is me. As soon as Krynn enters the battle zone he shoots and destroys one of the chozos small fighters.   
  
He shoots a couple more times, but misses. Then one of the cities ships fires on krynn's ship and hits it. The ship shakes violently, and then rights itself. "Weak weapondry, they should have had me upgrade their systems. Then they would be shooting down more of the enemy, but then they would have shot me down too." Krynn says shaking his head.  
He wasn't paying attension where he was going (cause he was shaking his head) and almost runs head on into a chozo craft, but at the last minute he jerks the controls back and the ship flies straight up. Unfortunatly when he jerked the controls he hit the fireing button, and he blew up one of the cities ships. "Opppsss"  
By now both the Chozo ships and the cities ships are trying to shoot Krynn down. Krynn shot 2 more Chozo ships down, then out of nowhere; 3 of the cities fighters come up from behind me and send a few lazer blasts right at me. 2 of the shots hit the engine and one hits the right wing. The engine doesn't blow up, but it is rendered inoperable. Krynn's ship goes down, and crashes in a wooded area.   
  
After 5 minutes, Krynn and Lydia crawl out of the battered ship. Right away the look up to the sky. It turns out that the Chozo had been shooting down both the Cities ships and their own, because they still thought that the renegade ship (Krynn's) was among them. The last Chozo ship tried to get away, but a few lazer blasts put a stop to that. The city own, with the help of Krynn, and the Chozo themselves. The pilots of the Cities ships must think the Chozo are stupid, shooting their own ships down. It would have been funnier if I hadn't got shot down, It is luck that this planets weapons are so weak compared to the Chozo's armor. Luck indeed.  
"We better get out of here."  
"Ok, but where."  
"I have a favor to ask a friend. Maybe she will let me use her repair shop."  
"They won't let you repair alien ships in repair shops."  
"Miranda will understand, anyway, she saved your life. If it wasn't for her I would have never gotten ahold of a Medical kit."   
"Oh!"  
"Let's go, we have a long walk ahead of us."  
  
Since Krynns ship got blown out of the air, it was a long walk back to the city. But it didn't seem as long as it actually was, because Krynn and Lydia got to know each other pretty well--and that took quite some time of talking.   
"Thank you Krynn," Lydia shouted, while she was huging him, "for agreeing to teach me, I am a good student and a fast learner."  
"With that body, a distraction would be more the truth." Krynn muttered.  
"What? I couldn't hear you, you really should speak louder."  
"Wha, oh yeah of course. I said we better get going if we want to make it to Miranda's before dark."  
"Ok." She finished, and continued down the path.  
  
It was an hour after dark that Krynn and Lydia finally reached Mirada's Warehouse. They would have made it sooner, but Lydia had to keep stoping to look at the "Beautiful flowers." But at least they made it before it got to late.  
Krynn knocked on the large door. It was made of a hard metal (steel) and he hurt his hand. Then Lydia laughed and found a strange button near the door. "You don't go knocking on steel doors dummy. You use the door bell." she said as she laughed. Then she pushed the door bell and a minute later a small panel slid open. "What, and who do you want!" a harsh voice sounded. "I am Krynn, I have come to see Miranda."   
"Krynn huh, oh yeah the engineer fellow." his voice sounded again, "ok, come in."  
They walked in, after he and this door man had an agument on whether or not Lydia could come in. Krynn won the agument, because this man was rather slow upstairs; but he could have pounded anyone who walked through that door easily. But Krynn is rather persuasive, and soon they were on their way--again--to see Miranda the Merchant.  
"Hello Krynn, I didn't expect you back so soon." the voice synthesizer sounded.   
"Well I sort of ran into some problems." He responded, a little embarassed. He has been flying space craft since he was 10 years old, and he got shot down in a little dog fight. "I have come to work off me debt."  
"Debt, Now I wouldn't call it that. The deal was: I give you the things that you needed for free, and then later you would do some work on my 20 man Fighter Craft. And since it is a big job, there is still a mater of how much you want me to pay for you to finish the job."  
"I don't want any money, I would just like to use your repair shop to fix up my ship."  
"Agreed" the voice synthesizer replyed.  
"I will start right away." He said as he turned to face Lydia.  
"And I will help" Lydia mumbled under her breath.  
  
It would take him over a week to up grade all the engines in this ship, and what a ship it was. Krynn had never seen a ship like this one, it was comfortable on the inside--not like other ships, with cheap seats that seem comfortable at first but not after a few hours, I mean comfortable as in take a nice nap in it. Yes this ship wouldn't have been very great in battle, the Chozo's ships would have flown circles around it. But with the weapons on this baby, they would take a good many ships down with them first. When the upgrade is done, the ship will be fast enough to just about keep up with the Chozo's small fighters (and those fighters move fast). Twice as many ships will fall to this craft, if the crew is good enough that is.   
After a week of hard work, he finished work on the ship's engines. Now it was time to repair his ship, which had been shot down by someone. He didn't know if a Chozo shot him down or one of the cities defenders, he was in an enemies ship so down he went--eventually.   
He went to work, letting Lydia help sometimes so that the repairs would get done sooner. But she was hardly as experienced as he was, and not familiar with his style of work or the Chozo's technology. So she did some minor work, but that is all. Later he would teach her the tricks of his trade, and she would be more active in repairs and upgrades. But there was not time for that now, the ship needed to get done soon. The chozo's shield was down, so ships could finally leave the planet. So the Chozo could be attacked, instead of waiting for them to attack. The problem was it was going to take him at least another week to repair the damage and modify the ship so he would not be misstaken as the enemy again. But there was no way to speed the process up.  
"I'm finally done." Krynn said with a sign of relief.   
"It would have got done sooner if--"  
"You don't know enough about my ways to help me much." Krynn interupted. "But that will change soon." he added. Then he stumbled over something and fell face first to the floor.  
Lydia quickly went over to him and help him up see if he was alright.  
"I'm fine I am just--" he stoped talking when he stared at what he triped over.  
"Just what?"  
He picked the item up. It was a scrap piece of the ship.   
She looked at the item, but she couldn't understand why he was so interested in it.  
"Why didn't I see this before, it..it..it--" Krynn studdered.  
"It's a piece of a computer, you must have it your head harder than I thought." she said as she eyed his wound. He had a large bruise on his head, and a long cut intersecting his eye brow.  
"I'm fine." he repeated. "I just need some sleep, then I will take another look at the ' Chozo's ' technology." With that he layed the item on one of the work desks and he left the room.   
Lydia picked the item up and looked at it. "I don't see what is so important about this." she said, puting it back down. Then she too went to her room and went to sleep.  
  
When Lydia got up Krynn was already working on the craft again. He was taking things apart and dismantling anything he hadn't worked on recently. He looked like he was looking for something, or maybe studying more......no it was probably the first choice.  
"AH HA! I found it." Krynn yelled.  
I went over to look at it. It was some type of brain, "oh I think i'm going to be sick."   
"This is the secret, no to find out how it is possible." Krynn said excited.  
"I am going to go lay back down" she said walking off.  
  
After a couple days he stoped messing with that brain, so Lydia could come back into the room without getting sick. Krynn had modifyed the ship a little again, and the ship was finally done.....they could leave.   
"Don't worry, I got rid of the brain." He said.  
"But I though it was needed?"  
"It was." stressing the was. "But I wouldn't go near the trash can if I were you."  
She looked down at the Trash can and started feeling sick again. "But you just can throw it in the trash, it...."  
"Ha ha ha I know that, I was just messing with you. I moved it back to the back of the ship, so you wouldn't throw up on the computer everytime you saw the containment unit. Ha hahaha"  
She slapped him, and walked away. She hated to be made fun of.  
"I.......hum. Weman?"   
  
After he was done putting the finishing touches on the ship he went to apologise to Lydia.  
"Lydia, I'm--" He stoped, spying a note.  
[Krynn,  
I thought you would be different, that you knew how to treat a lady. Well I guess I was wrong. I have left to go seek my own life.   
Lydia]  
Great, try to have a little fun and the girl flips out and goes out on her own. Now I will have to go find her, before she gets herself killed.   
He crumpled the note up and threw it away. Then he left the room and headed to his new and improved ship, which he named the Nexus.   
The Nexus is his greatest invention yet. He has incorporated almost everything he knows into it: Voice activation, energy shielding (virtually impossible before he became familiar with the chozo's secret), Nano Tecnology, Life support, Lazers, Chozo weapons (which consist of a modified energy blast--stronger than lazers), and something new from the Chozo's technology. This ship is a little better than the normal Chozo's fighters. And now it is time to test it.   
He got in, and switched to Secondary control setting. Then told the computer to set a course for the old Battle site. The one where he found Lydia, fixed this ship the first time, and where his best friend got killed. In a moment the ships engines started to hum, then it floated up and then forward. He was off. Now the search began.....  
  
*** The following are the first posts written by Blastek13 ***  
  
Mara armed her Blastech 44 as soon as she heard the blast from the side of the street. She was at the moment going to try and sell her goods to the different guilds and was on her way to the Bounty Hunters Guild. She knew that this system rendered force powers unusable so she couldnt use the force what had just touched down. Suddenly she saw them, True Chozo Elite Troopers. They looked like birds gone mutant. Mara blasted one with her 44 at full force, blasting it to pieces. One of the other five fired a type of blaster rifle at Mara . The blast was just seconds away from turning to her ash. Mara knew she didnt have her light saber with her or her force powers, but she did have her many skills she had gotten from being the Emperors Hand. She launched herself off a nearby building and landed a full kick into one of the Chozo, following up with a blast to its head. She grabbed one of the other Chozos blasters while he held it and used it to launch him head first into a wall. Mara couldnt find the last one for a few seconds before she heard the click of a rifle arming behind her. The Chozo tightened the trigger and was blasted to pieces by Reba Fett, who was emerging from an alleyway. "Thanks, but who are you?" asked Mara.   
"Im Reba Fett, and I didnt want a fellow bounty hunter going down by some cowardly Chozo," replied Reba.  
"For one thing Im not a bounty hunter. Im a merchant. I was going to the bounty hunting guild to see if I could sell to anyone. These moves I got from a job a while back," stated Mara.  
"A merchant? What was the job? An Emperors Hand?" asked Reba sarcatically.  
"Actually, yes I was. Maybe you should stop by the shop sometime," answered Mara as she walked away, holstering her 44.  
If Reba hadnt been wearing a helmet, her jaw would have dropped to the ground.  
(Reba will now be going back to Scylla, since she had just dropped by to put up a holo poster at the merchants guild for Scylla's Navy) (Mara will be going to all the guilds to put up holo posters advertising her wares)  
  
Mara set up the security and desk droid at the credit register. Mara then set up a small shield generator to stop her shop from becoming space dust. She then jumped in her ship, JADE'S FIRE, and turned on the repulsors. She was going to Scylla to see if she could sell some of her new goods to the rebels there. It was less crowded there anyway. If anyone wanted her goods they would just have to give her the order there and she would get them the goods later. Mara sent her orbital codes and sped out into space, and then to Scylla.  
  
*** And these are the first posts written by SHIVA X ***  
  
Subj: *NEWS FROM OVERDOG  
Date: 95-12-09 15:00:33 EST  
From: DRED13   
  
BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEEP!  
  
Hazard and Dark Star were awoken by an annoying sound that was coming from somewhere inside Hazard's suit. It was a Vid-Com message from OVERDOG ( Any emergency messages sent by OVERDOG are instantly transmitted to all Planetary Justice Society members ). Hazard played the message, and listened intently to what information OVERDOG had about the space station Nextima. Supposedly, the True Chozos had caused critical dammage to the station and the thousands of people inhabiting it. One thing was for sure, the people would have to evacuate the ship as soon as possible. A total of 50IC per life saved was promised to whomever could help in the crisis.  
" Hey, that's pretty good, " said Dark Star, " Fifty IMPERIAL credits equals about just as much as 100,000 normal credits. "  
Hazard also seemed a bit interested.  
" Yeah, but do you have a ship to take us there? "  
" I DO... " began Dark Star, " but it isn't in very good condition. Maybe we could stop by the Engineer Guild and pick up someone who'll fix it up for a cheap price. "   
" I don't know, man, " sighed Hazard, " it's hard to find an engineer that would be generous enough to work for cheap payment. We gotta' try it though if we want to help all those people on Nextima. "  
Hazard then pulled out a large metal case, " But first we have to see what the heck Wrath and his crazy goons were doing with these little packages. "  
Hazard proceeded to unlock the case. A hiss of steam arose from the opening. Whatever was inside the package had been locked up air-tight. As Hazard opened the case all the way, he saw within the case a small canister of silvery-green liquid.  
Hazard curled his lip in disgust.  
" Is this what I think it is? "  
Dark Star nodded and replied, " Yep, it's Chozo blood. "   
  
There Shiva X was toe to toe with what seemed like hundreads of wyverns found in Norfair. Equipped only with his Bounty Hunter's Armor,he decided his weapon was too weak to finish off these beasts however, his Armor did already have a speed boost implanted into it. So Shiva did the thing anyone else in his situation would do....RUN!!  
  
Shiva started running ntil the speed boost was so charged up, he was unable to stop running and crashed through several walls until he fell down a weak floor and into the depths of Charybdis. Shiva found himself in the middle of some ancient ruins that were cluttered with destroyed Chozo statues. "I must have found the ancient temple of the first Chozo!" he thought.  
  
Shiva noticed something glowing from inside the temple. He walked toward the light and saw a Chozo statue holding a glowing ball. When Shiva touched the ball he instantly morphed into a ball for he had discovered THE MORPH BALL. Shiva, crouched into a ball, propeled himself into the statue's hands.  
  
Suddenly the claws of the statue closed around him and the statue moved it's arm as if it was throwing Shiva straight into the wall. The statue hurled Shiva through the air as Shiva de-morphed and jumped off the wall and kicked the statue in the face.   
  
The statue was now moving toward him, swinging its razor sharp claws. Shiva then saw his "crack of oppurtunity." Shiva morphed into a ball and rolled through a crack so he was on the other side of the room.   
  
The creature was too big to fit through the crack! Shiva started blasting the creature until it was reduced to a pile of rubble and left mall glowing orbs. Shiva picked up the orbs and recognized them immideatly, "THESE ARE BOMBS" he cheered.  
  
Shiva then saw what the statue was blocking, an elevator. Shiva took the elevator to the floor below where he was attacked by the Wyverns and he saw a huge stomach. It was then he relized that these were not hundreads of seprate wyverns but one wyvern with hundreads of heads.  
  
Shiva quickly placed bombs all around the creature. KABBOOOOM!! The creature exploded into millions of pieces. Shiva then noticed another door behind where the creature was standing. He opened the door and discovered a stockade of MISSLES. He picked up as many as his suit could carry and then started to head towards the door. Until suddenly he was pulled back to the wall and stuck there like a fly swatted on someone's hands. He heard a humming sound that told him the room was magnitized and his suit was keeping him glued to the walls.  
  
Just then the door opened again and there stood Peyton and six Chozo warriors. "Greetings" he said "Soon you will join your family in hell!!"  
  
The smell was strong enough to even ward off flies. Hazard and  
Dark Star had to admit, though, that it was a GREAT place to have a hideout.  
Their only problem was finding the entrance.  
" Wait a minute! " said Hazard abruptly, " What's that noise? "  
Dark Star took a moment to look around.   
" I hear it too. Someone's coming our way. "  
Hazard switched on his plasma cannon.  
" Yeah, well he better leave before I-- "   
The two were glad to see that it was only Brixx and Clan Zong. They were  
coming along to help.  
" What are you doin' here man! " cried Hazard in a frantic whisper, "  
You weren't assigned to this. "  
" I know, " replied Brixx, " but I wanted to come along anyway. What's  
the assignment. "  
Dark Star replied, " We must go back through time to shoot a man's left  
arm off. "  
Brixx nearly jumped, " THAT'S IT?!? WHY do you have to do that? "  
" Because I we don't, " Hazard explained, " then this guy NEVER gets his  
super robotic arm, and he never kills this 'robotic dictator' who nearly  
destroys half the galaxy of today. Another thing is that I AM THE ONE who  
must pull the trigger on this guy. WHY? I don't know, but I have to do it. "  
  
Before the crew could say anything more to each other, a door opened  
out from the ground. A little man with curly white hair popped out, motioning  
them to come in. Once they were in, the man rushed them to a large machine.  
Before Hazard or any of his friends could say a word, the little man began to  
talk.  
" There's no time to chat, my friends. You MUST be teleported  
immediately before it's too late! "  
The little man brought Hazard to the side, and began to whisper some  
instructions to him. The other three were shoved onto a platform by two other  
strange-looking men.  
The little man then rushed Hazard onto the platform, and then proceeded  
to tap on several dials and buttons upon a small control panel. As he did so,  
the lights grew dim, and the humming sound of several electric generators  
could then be heard in the distance. Four metal rods, surrounding Hazard's  
group, began to light up with intense electrical energy.   
Brixx cried out before anything else could happen.  
" BUT HOW DO WE GET BACK FROM WHEREVER WE'RE GOING?!?! "  
The little man slapped his own brow.  
" Oh GOODNESS!! HERE, TAKE THIS!! "  
The man threw Brixx a small metal cube. Brixx caught it JUST in time, right  
before he and the other three vanished.  
  
" Hazard.............. Hazard................ Get up. "  
Hazard opened his eyes to see Brixx standing over him.  
" Aww man.... what happened? " asked Hazard, rubbing the back of his neck.  
" We're here to blow some guy's arm off, remember? "  
" OH YEAH! "  
Hazard jumped to his feet and looked around.  
" Allrighty then, from what I remember, this guy should be about three blocks from where we are now. Dark Star, you and Clan Zong take the west side, and Brixx and I will take the east side. Remember, I am the guy who has to shoot this guy, not any of you all, got it? "  
" Right! " replied Dark Star, " I'm on my way. I'll let you all know if I see him. "  
  
With that, the two pairs split up as planned. It wasn't long before Dark Star's voice came in from Hazard's comm unit.  
" You guys, I just spotted our man! Take a right from where you are, and look for a one-way lane. You can't miss him! "  
Brixx and Hazard rushed to the scene only to be nearly tackled by a huge mutant beast. Luckily, the the two jumped back into the alley from which they came. Soon after the monster had passed, another figure followed.  
" OH CRAP! THAT'S HIM! " cried Hazard.   
Quickly, Hazard pulled out a double-barreled shotgun from his utility pack. He took aim, but it was too late. His target had already disappeared into another alley.  
Hazard and Brixx were quick to follow.  
  
Just then, two tall figures attacked Hazard and Brixx from behind. As the two were knocked to the ground, the man who they were chasing stood above them. The man then appeared to be ripping off his own face. Then Hazard and Brixx saw that this man WAS NOT the man they were looking for, for the face he pulled off was actually a holo mask.  
With his true face exposed, the man looked at Brixx and laughed.  
" Heh heh heh.... I make a pretty good decoy, don't I Brixx? "  
" HOLY $#!% !! " exclaimed Brixx, " It's Cikes!!! "  
Brixx pulled out his P-2000, and aimed for Cikes's head. In the meantime, Hazard was trying to contact Dark Star on his comm unit.  
" I'm gonna' blow your frickin' head of Cikes!! " screamed Brixx.  
Cikes smiled, " I wouldn't do that if I were you. "  
Cikes pointed up. A group of about twenty of the same tall, dark characters dropped down from above, and attacked the two marshals. Hazard tried once again to contact Dark Star, when Cikes then suddenly shot the comm unit out of Hazard's hands.  
In seconds, Hazard and Brixx were brought down to their knees. Just before Cikes's goons knocked them out, Cikes had one last thing to say....  
" Say goodnight boys! "  
  
CLUNK!.. *@***************************************************  
  
" Very good! " cikes commended his men, " These two will serve our purpose well. Open the portal. "  
At his command, the henchmen opened up a reddish-orange portal. Just then, Dark Star spotted them. As fast as his feet could carry him, Dark Star ran towards the dark alley. But before Dark Star could even get within fifty yards away from them, Cikes, his goons, Hazard, and Brixx were gone. Nothing was left of them except for Hazard's broken comm unit, lying on the ground.  
  
Dark Star took a moment to think to himself. The portal that Cikes used was NOT a time portal, for it was way too big to be a time protal. Dark Star knew it was just another space portal, much like his own. In fact, it was almost EXACTLY like his own.  
And the ONLY other person who had a portal similar to DarK Star's was none other than Shadow Kill!  
" Dark Star has problem. " said Clan Zong, who had been with Dark Star all along,  
" What Dark Star's problem? "  
" It's Shadow Kill, a good enemy of mine. He's here somewhere, and he's got Hazard and Brixx as his prisoners. "  
" Oooh! Look what we find! " said Clan Zong in excitement, " We fix problem! Help friends! "  
Dark Star watched as Clan Zong swarmed Hazard's broken comm unit. In minutes, Clan Zong had finished repairing the comm unit. A series of letters and numbers appeared upon the unit's digital surface. Dark Star studied them carefully.  
" OH MAN! " said Dark Star aloud, " These are Hazard's coordinates!! How did you do this? "  
Clan Zong replied, " Old trick we pick up from radio repairman. Now comm unit is homing device! "  
" Well then, let's get going! " said Dark Star, " We don't have much time. "  
  
The coordinates led Dark Star and Clan Zong to an abandoned apartment complex, not far from where Cikes and the others had disappeared. A small light could be seen coming from a window at the base of the building. Dark Star and his Dust bunny friend crept up to the window, pullied it open a bit, and listened to a conversation that of the guards were having.  
" I don't understand dis. Why exactly were we sent back through time to get dese fools anyway? "  
" I was informed that one of these two men caused trouble for General Wrath back on the Nextima and in the city of Takola. Heard that one of Wrath's Chozo blood units were stolen also. "  
" Yes, but HOW did Shadow Kill know that they'd be goin' back through time to dis exact year? "  
" Some strange man, who says he travels through time and space ALL the time, told Lord Shadow Kill that the fools would be here. "  
" Isn't dat strange man the same one who gave Wrath that secret ingredient for de Chozo blood? "  
" Yes, I believe so. However, I don't---- "  
KLUNK!!!!! *********************************  
Before the two blabbering guards knew what hit them, Dark Star had clubbed them both on the back of their heads with a lead pipe. Dark Star collected the weapons they had been guarding, and then went to free Hazard and Brixx.  
  
" Dark Star! " said Hazard in relief, " Man, I thought you'd NEVER get here! "  
Darh Star handed Hazard the plasma cannon, and replied, " Let's get out of here! You have a job to do remember? "  
" Yeah, " said Hazard as he grabbed hold of the plasma cannon, " we better hurry up then. "  
  
Soon, the four were safely out of the complex and back on the streets. They could still hear the cries of the beast that their target had been chasing for the last hour or so, which was a good sign that the man was not gone yet.   
Then they saw him! He was at a distance of sixty yards away. He was slowing down, perhaps because the monster had somehow evaded him. But monster or no monster, this was Hazard's chance.  
Hazard pulled out his shotgun, and took aim.  
" Don't fail on this, Hazard, " whispered Dark Star, " Half the galaxy AND a LOT of cash depends on this ONE shot. "  
  
Just then, Brixx accidentally knicked the tip of his gun against a nearby trash can. The sound wasn't very loud, but it was loud enough to attract their target's attention. As soon as the man heard the noise, he turned toward Hazard, and saw the gun. At this moment, Hazard was stunned as he looked straight into the eyes of his victim. Hazard's finger began to loosen from the trigger.  
Then Hazard shook all those thoughts out of his head, and said quietly to himself,  
" Sorry man, this is for the universe........ "  
  
KA-BLAM!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
The bullet successfully hit its target right in the left shoulder, separating the arm from the body in a bloody gush. Hazard had turned his head as soon as he had pulled the trigger, so he saw none of this. All he heard was the man's screams.  
Then Hazard and his three friends headed back to the alley they came from. Brixx activated the metal cube that was given to him by the little man, and in an instant, that same electrical light surrounded them. As they vanished into time, Hazard could only think about the person whom he shot. Even though Hazard KNEW that the man would survive, he still felt guilty of what he had just done.  
  
With his new ship the Nexus he sets out to look for Lydia. I can't believe how lonely I has been without that girl. He was looking forward to teaching her the ropes, and especially to her 'distractions'. But now he went and pissed her off, and only a by a harmless thing like poking fun at her. "Boy she sure is moody, but I wouldn't have it anyother way."  
He arrived at the old battle site. Besides the scrap metal, the place was empty. No one was around, "Darn, I thought she would be here."  
Maybe she was here but then left, well it can't hurt to look.  
He looked around and spoted some weapon fire. "Must be from when John was killed. No, it can't be. Because that happened over there," and he pointed to where he was talking about. He realized what he was doing and put his arm down, "The chozo must have been back here within the last few days. Oh no, Lydia." He quickly stood up and looked around. He looked all over the battle site, and found a hair pin.  
"She was around here, and so were the Chozo. At least there is no blood or body, that is a relief."   
A weapon fires, and Krynn is hit in the left arm. "Ahhhhhh" Krynn yelled as he fell to the ground. Because he was caught off guard he suffered a moment of weakness, and that is why he fell to the ground. Krynn recovers from the moment of weakness and rolls behind a large chunck of metal. Another shot hits the place where he had been laying.   
"What kind of coward shots a man from behind?" I yelled from behind cover.  
"A bounty hunter on a mission."  
"And what mission would that be?"  
"For Krynn the Tarsist's HEAD!" he yelled as he jumped over Krynn cover.  
I heard the hunter moving close to his cover and was prepared for anything. The hunter jumped over the metal barier and tackled Krynn. I have to admit, this was the one thing he wasn't ready for.   
Me and the hunter rolled around on the ground, each one trying to over power the other. The hunter was stronger than Krynn, and soon got on top and pinned him to the ground. He put energy cuffs on Krynns wrist. Then he resrained my hands with his left hand, and pulled out a big Knife with his right hand.  
"Goodbye Krynn the Tarsist." the hunter said laughing at him. His eyes started to glow bright red, and he looked like a demon.   
A weapon is fired, and the hunter falls to the side. Krynn looks around and sees a 'True Chozo' standing a few yards in front of him. He pushes the rest of the hunters body off of him and rolls back over behind the metal chunk. I still had the energy cuffs on, but I could use my laser pistol if I use both hands.   
Krynn pulled out his laser pistol and shot at the Chozo. A direct hit, right in the chest; "No way, he didn't even flinch." Krynn shouted surprised. He had an idea, and threw his laser pistol to the right as hard as he could. The laser gun hit the ground and fired a laser beam, and the Chozo looked over to the sorce of the sound. Krynn dashed out from his hiding place and struck the Chozo up side the head--pain suddenly rushed through his arm, but he ignored it and fought on. Then Krynn kicked the back of the chozo's knees and the chozo fell on them. Waisting no time he put his arms on each side of it's head, making sure the energy bar was against the chozo's neck, and he pulled back hard and held it there.  
With a little cunning and luck, almost anyone can beat one of these chozo's.   
A weapon fires, and Krynn starts to feel sleepy. He can't keep his eyes open. "Is this what it feels like to die?" he said softly, "But at least I will take this chozo with me."  
Krynn colapses, bringing the choking chozo down on top of him. Then all is blackness.  
  
  
Shiva tried to manuver around the asteroids but, Peyton had somehow locked the steering control on the ship before he teleported away. Suddenly, a huge asteroid hit the right wing of the ship, breaking it off. The ship started to crash to the planet Charybdis as Shiva blacked out.  
  
Shiva awoke in a jungle. He got up and entered Peyton's ship to discover it was wreacked beyond help. Shiva searched around for the last fragment of Mother Brain but found it was missing. "Did Peyton take it before he teleported?" Shiva could'nt remember. Then suddenly some sort of energy blast hit Shiva from behind, knocking him on the ground. Shiva tried to turn and see his attacker but he was already starting to blackout again........the last thing he saw was a giant bird and three small green rabits surrounding him.........   
  
Shiva awoke, alone, in some sort of primitive hut. He got up and peeked throught the door to see a city carved in the trees where green rabits jumped from leaf to leaf and green ostriches ran on the branches. Just then Shiva couldn't move!! He tried but he just could'nt!!!!! Then suddenly, these bird like creatures appeared around him and seem to control a pink auroa around Shiva.   
  
The bird creatures carried Shiva in his auroa up to the top of a huge temple made of wood. The creatures lowered the arms as Shiva fell down before a smaller bird like creature sitting on a throne of thorns holding the Mother Brain fragment.  
  
The creature then spoke without moving its beak "We are the True Chozo!!! Your alliance has declared war on our home planet and you fall from the gates of heaven with this weapon to destroy us." "Tell me stranger, the True Chozo have not attacked you, why do you try to kill us?"  
  
Shiva answered, " Please forgive me but I did not intend to destroy you. Someone from my civilzation has framed your species of the destruction of many other worlds." "If I cannot stop them in 55 hours, you're home world will be destroyed by the alliance."  
  
The creature again spoke, "You are forgiven and my people will help you if we decide you are worthy." "We know of you're culture for 2 other humans have landed here." "One was a female whom we taught the ways of the Chozo Warrior. The other was a male who tried to kidnap one of us. The name on his garment was ....Peyton."  
  
Shiva spoke "I know of the man, Peyton, and apologize for his actions. How may I prove myself worthy of your people?"  
  
CHOZO: "YOU MUST BATTLE THE SERPENT" and if you do not win we will destoy you and take your weapon the the   
  
SHIVA X: Mother Brain  
  
CHOZO: THE MOTHER BRAIN!!!!! The creatures began to speak in a foreign tounge as Shiva was taken back to the hut.  
  
There he was, in the middle of some sort of ruins located somewhere in the jungles of Chrybdis. Shiva looked around at the huge stone pillars embedded in the ground and discovered various hyrogliphics. The hyrogliphics pictured a man with a birds head bowind to a missle with a brain inside it. The rest were ruined by time.  
  
Shiva walked into an old colesseum and found himself in the middle of a marsh which used to be a battlefield. Suddenly, Shiva felt something moving around his legs in the water he kicked the unseen entity and countinued to move.   
  
Then, without warning, a huge serpent rose out of the swamp water and shot balls of fire at Shiva. Shiva jumped over the fire balls but he never had a chance to land on the ground and fire at the beast. Then Shiva remembered the SCREW ATTACK.  
  
Shiva charged up his Screw energy and lept into the air, toward the beast. Shiva cut through the beast's neck like a hot knife through butter and watched as its head tumbeled over into the fog. Shiva walked over to the corpse and picked up the serpents head.   
  
Moments later, at the True Chozo village Shiva proudly walked into the chief's hut and threw the serpents head down onto the floor as the on lookers gasped in disbelief. The chief spoke.  
  
CHIEF CHOZO: Very well. You have proven to us that you are not like the foolish ones who seek our destruction. We will aid you in any way possible and return your brain weapon.  
  
SHIVA X: Thanks but unless you have a ship I can use to find my friends, you cannot help me.  
  
The chief threw a pair of keys into Shiva's hands...  
  
CHIEF CHOZO: Here take the old battleship in the aquaduct. But it's impossible to go know for the light will soon be gone and the creatures of the night roam the ruins at night.   
  
ShivaX: Creatures of the night?  
  
Chief: Yes, there are horrible creatures who hunt us down in our beds and eat us.  
  
ShivaX: Well lets put a stop to this.  
  
Shiva entered the old battleship the Chief of the True Chozo tribe had told him would help him return to Cerebus to find his friends. The electricity was apparently off because the ship was completley dark. Shiva touched the walls of the ship to discover that it had some slimy substance on it. Shiva looked around for these "creatures of the night" the chief had told him about but there was no creature of the night or the day on the ship. Shiva entered the main deck of the ship, more commonly known as the bridge, were the captain would sit and command the ship. Shiva dusted off the old navigation gear and started all the engines. A red light flashed on the monitor telling Shiva that the engines were stuck for some reason. Shiva flipped another switch, turning all the lights on, and headed for the main engine room.   
  
The room was covered in the slime that were on the walls near the ship's entrance but the slime had huge pockets in it, almost as if it were a hive. Suddenly, something landed on Shiva. Something so big it covered his entire body and started sucking the life out of him. Shiva reached into his supplies and planted a bomb near the top of the covering.   
  
KABOOM the bomb exploded destroying the creature that landed on him. Then Shiva looked around and noticed he was surronded by Metroids. This was apparently thier nest. One of the metroids lept at Shiva but was stopped in its tracks by the ICE BEAM. Shiva proceded to freeze anything that tried to jump on him but they were defrosting too fast and there was too many of them. Shiva reliazed he needed something big to wipe them all out at once.  
  
Shiva looked and saw what looked like a dorment nucleur core. The ship ran off of the radiation in the core but since the core had'nt been used in years, the core was almost dormant and needed an energy boost. Shiva took out one of his lethal POWER BOMBS and hurled it down the core as he ran out of the room and locked the door. He heard the bomb go off and the high pitch screams of the Metroids as he ran back to the bridge.  
  
Shiva looked at the monitor as he scanned the room for lifeforms. The monitor blinked "NO LIFEFORMS PRESENT IN THIS AREA" Shiva sighed with relief as he started the engines and blasted off to Cerebus.  
  
CERBERUS  
  
***  
  
And that concludes my collection of Metroid: Blood of the Chozo stuff. It ain't much, but I'm willing to bet it's one of the largest collections left anywhere. This stuff is from an age when most people didn't save their writings in I-Stories --- we're much more cautious these days.  
  
Anything else you need to know, give me a ring. It's been a long time, but I'll do what I can to help.  
  
Ciao.  
  
  



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